On a recent Thursday along the beautiful waters of Berkeley’s Aquatic Park, a group of cormorants sunbathed on the dock, buffleheads floated nearby, and Christina Leffmann embraced the freedom she thought she’d never have.

A decade ago, when Leffmann was 23, she suffered a stroke — her third — and her life fell apart. Today, she settles into her power-assisted tricycle, attaches the leash of her 14-year-old dog, Air, and starts to ride.

Riding the paved pathway alongside the glistening waters, Leffmann is as free as the cormorants on a cycling ride that has become a weekly highlight.

It’s all made possible by BORP Adaptive Sports and Recreation, a 48-year-old program that provides access to athletics, fitness and outdoor recreation for people with disabilities.

There are movie nights and peer support groups. There are camping trips and team sports — wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, goalball, power soccer and sled hockey — as well as fitness classes, pickleball and rock climbing. And the adaptive cycling center alongside Aquatic Park houses one of the world’s largest adaptive bike collections and a kayaking program.

Hanging with her new friends, Leffmann has felt inspired. She now lives alone. And she recently began applying to master’s degree programs to study social work.

Because she’s never had a doctor or counselor with a disability, she’s decided she wants to become one.

“I was previously putting the disability bias on myself,” she says. “But I really like the idea of, it’s not if you can do it, it’s how you can do it.”