Pilot with no arms pursues another big challenge
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Jessica Cox was born without arms, but she's never let that stop her.
The motivational speaker with ties to Hawaii can fly a plane, surf, text, and put in her contacts.
And now she's conquering a new challenge to inspire others.
For the past two weeks, she's been trying slacklining and inviting others to follow her journey.
She sets up her line between two coconut trees in Waikiki and tries to walk across, again and again.
Even after a fall, Jessica doesn't give up and shows how slacklining is a full body workout made even more challenging without arms.
"I have this fear of losing contact with the ground so when I tried slacklining it was doing something despite that fear that I've always had," said Cox. "I'm invited all over the world to talk to people about being fearless and I choose slacklining as my next challenge."
Cox is used to overcoming her fears, and her can-do list is a long one.
She's the world's first licensed armless pilot as well as the first armless black belt in the American Taekwondo Association.
She surfs, she can text and take videos on her cellphone and to top it off, she can even put on contact lenses all with her feet.
Cox said she used prosthetic arms from Shriners Hospitals for Children until she was 14. She gave them up because she never made a connection with them and she said it was one of the best decisions she ever made.
"I cannot even remember the first time I made the connection that my feet are my hands," she said.
"To overcome my fear, I just had to do it without thinking too much about it. Because the more that I think about it, I build it up in my head. And it stops me. And it prevents me because I create it into a bigger thing that it is."
She's bringing people together for The International Child Amputee Network Conference this summer in Honolulu and hopes to inspire others.
"My belief is just do it even if you are afraid of it," she said.
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