Navy researching surfing for PTSD, million dollar dud

When will they ever learn? Here goes another boatload of money on research for something they should already know helps veterans with PTSD.

What is even worse is, they should know that anything that helps calm down their bodies helps. That's right, anything!

Their suffering bodies are also part of what PTSD hits and they have to teach their bodies how to relax again. For some, it is music, art, meditation, martial arts, or even something as simple as taking a walk. In this story, it is getting on a surfboard.

Why is it that the military is so far behind on figuring all this out? After all, it is because of veterans coming home from war the results of traumatic events are understood. Those veterans came home over 40 years ago from Vietnam and they pushed for all the research done.

If any of these people in charge actually bothered to do some research on what has already been understood, we would have saved a lot more lives and a lot more money!


U.S. Navy study aims to see if surfing will help counteract PTSD
First Coast New
Janny Rodriguez
March 14, 2018

McCrossin said he struggled with survivor's guilt and he's still coping with his PTSD every day. Over time he found some relief in music and three years ago, he started surfing.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The U.S. Navy is spending $1 million on a three-year study that's aimed to find out whether or not surfing can counteract with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

Disabled Navy vet and avid surfer, Bill McCrossin, told First Coast News he is excited about the study.

"I love waking up before the sun and loading up the car trying to throw this 9-foot board into the car and then going to the beach," McCrossin said. "I started finding that therapeutic."

McCrossin said he has PTSD from his four years in the Navy. He joined 2001 right out of high school.

"[PTSD is] a living hell," he said. He said he didn't know how to ask or get help.

"You don't know what it is you're trying to reach it for because you can't verbalize it because you don't know what it is," he said.
read more here

Stephan Jenkins Gets PTSD But Doesn't Have It

Every once in a while, I find myself ready to stop reading something, then read one more paragraph. Something just causes me to not give up on it and this morning was just one of those times.

Stephan Jenkins has become involved in a foundation taking veterans surfing. He's doing it because he cares and because he believes it helps, but also seems to understand why they need the help.

Please read the whole article,  "Frankly, 3EB’s Stephan Jenkins is older, wiser and doesn’t give a damn." 

but here's the basic message.

Jenkins, who has always worked with causes close to his heart, is currently involved with the Jimmy Miller Foundation, an organization that teaches surfing to active-service Marines and vets who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle

“I’m not a therapist,” he says. “I don’t have any training in that whatsoever. But I have an intuitive understanding of what it is to not be here, as in, ‘I’m not with you right now — I’m with my troubles someplace else.’ A lot of these guys are just not home. But when a wave comes at you — you’re not thinking about anything else. You accept that moment and get into a flow state with it. You are present.”

read more here 

Clearly, he gets it even though he doesn't have it.

Navy Veterans Help Others Ride "One More Wave"

Surfing veterans ride the wave to recovery
San Diego Union Tribune
Pam Kragen
November 22, 2016

“Getting people out of the hospital, off the meds, out of the dark place they’re in, treating them like the men they are and not talking to them like kids ... I mean, really, depending upon where some guys are at, it could save their life,” McFadden said.

One More Wave volunteers Micah Shanahan, left, Kyle Buckett and Alex West at Shanahan's Addict Surfboards in Sorrento Valley.

(Peggy Peattie / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Alex West and Kyle Buckett didn’t become friends until two years ago, but their lives have long followed parallel paths. Each of the San Diego men has served more than 15 years in the Navy, each completed more than a dozen deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and each is passionate about the healing power of surfing.

Together, they’re now the volunteer force behind One More Wave, an 18-month-old San Diego nonprofit that provides free custom-designed surfboards to wounded military veterans.

Over the past year-and-a-half, West, Buckett and surfboard shaper Micah Shanahan have delivered boards to 31 veterans who’ve lost limbs in combat, suffered disabling injuries or struggle with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD). Another 14 boards are now in the finishing stages at Shanahan’s Addict Surfboards in Sorrento Valley.
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Surfs Up And So Is Morale For Wounded Veterans in Virginia

Surfing at Va. Beach Oceanfront helps vets cope with injuries
The Virginian-Pilot
By Elisabeth Hulette
© May 31, 2015

VIRGINIA BEACH
How does a triple amputee get up on a surfboard?

Easy, said 32-year-old Luis Rosa-Valentin, who lost an arm and both legs in a roadside explosion about seven years ago in Baghdad. You just pop up into a sitting position, balance and ride the wave to shore.

"I love being in the water," Rosa-Valentin said Saturday during the Wave Warriors Surf Camp that took over the beach by Rudee Loop. "There's nothing else in this world that I love more."

Of all the ways wounded veterans cope with injuries physical and mental, the Wave Warriors crew says becoming one with the sea is a pretty good way to go.

Ken Hunt, who helped launch the nonprofit seven years ago, said that out in the surf, stress and trauma just melt away.

"We call it saltwater treatment," he said. "It is so therapeutic. For us, it is a simple way to give back."

Preston Schofield, a 58-year-old from Tampa, Fla., who fell out of a helicopter and injured his back, said meeting other veterans at the event is good for morale.
read more here

Surf's Up For UK Triple Amputee

Triple Amputee Veteran Martin Pollock Now Surfs With The Best Of Them 
The Huffington Post
By Carla Herreria
Posted: 01/29/2015

After an improvised explosive devise took both of Martin Pollock's legs and part of his left arm in 2010, he did everything he could to get his active lifestyle back.

Pollock was 26 years old and serving as a rifleman in Afghanistan for the British Army when the explosion happened. He went home to England as a triple amputee and tried to carry on with normal life. He bought a car and a house. He went to the gym. He continued to work on his walking. He was determined to be as active as he possibly could, but "I had no real plans for anything in particular," he told The Huffington Post.

One of his biggest challenges, Pollock said, was getting his prosthetics to fit properly. "I spent 2 1/2 years trying to get my leg sockets to fit into the prosthetics," he said. "It's the most important part to be able to walk. If the socket is no good, nothing else matters."

At the beginning of one of Pollock's routine rehab visits in 2012, he heard about a sponsored trip to California hosted by Operation Surf, a nonprofit that assists the rehabilitation of wounded active duty servicemen through adaptive surfing. read more here

Fruits of deeds and courage of paralyzed veteran

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 23, 2014

About a month ago Wounded Times posted the story of Randy Abbott "Paralyzed veteran beaten and robbed causes international reaction of love." What got to most people was not as much about what he did in the military, but what he did with his life after an operation to help him ended up paralyzing him.

When asked his reaction to the outbreak of love and compassion generated by his story, Abbott is visibly shaken.

"When I have people who don't even know me and they call me from Hawaii, Australia and France and say 'Hey, just get back in the water and surf and you're gonna be ok. We love you buddy!' That means a lot to me."

KUSI News San Diego

Randy does what he can to help others enjoy surfing but more than that, he's helping them learn they can still enjoy life no matter what happened to them. To know that having a disabled body does not mean the person is disabled by the limitations.

Yesterday when I got home from work, there was an email from Randy with a message to call him. I wasn't sure who he was like most of the time when a veteran contacts me. I called, left a message and he called me back last night. No one knows about the conversations I have with veterans and they never will unless the veteran wants to share something. In this case, after you read what he wrote, you'll know why this story is different.

Randy said he wanted to apologize for lying. Still not sure of who I was talking to, I could hear the emotion in his soft voice. After a while it sunk in that I posted his story but I was still confused over the apology. The thing about his story that was reported in the news, wasn't about his military service, but was about what he did with his life afterwards.

Had this story been about his service in the military with him thumping a chest full of medals that turned out to be one of the thousands of frauds running around the country trying to get something for themselves, I would have understood the pain in his voice as I spoke about forgiveness, but it wasn't. It was a story of a veteran taking something bad that happened to him and making lives better for others.

I asked him if he lied about any of that and he said he didn't. That was all I needed to know because the simple fact he wanted to find forgiveness for something few knew about was humbling as well as inspirational.

I thought about how many times I've screwed up as a human in my own life, just like everyone else. I thought about my Dad doing the whole AA steps of making amenze knowing it was out of his power what people did with it but in his power to change his own life from that moment on. Just like every other human on the planet we can't change the past but can change with the next breath we take.

In Matthew 7, Jesus was addressing the difference between what men say and what they actually do.

You Will Know Them by Their Fruits
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

The fruits of Randy's deeds are shown on the faces of all the kids and others he's met over the years. There will be some unable to acknowledge his actions are inspirational and change lives because they want to hold onto something wrong as if it will make them feel better about themselves.

Randy is like others in many ways. All of us can say whatever we want and many times we regret what we say. It takes a lot of courage to admit we were wrong and apologize. After being married for 30 years, I can attest to that fact of life and honestly I don't think I'm done needing to tell my husband I'm sorry for something plus the other way around. We've been married this long because we can see ourselves honestly knowing we are far from perfect. (I still haven't figured out how he puts up with me.)

Do Not Judge
7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

When I told Randy he was already forgiven, he was quiet for extended time. Then he said "I do believe that." Then I asked him to do something for other veterans out there being tormented by something they think they did wrong. Knowing the power of forgiveness, I asked him to help others seek it for themselves. Without hesitation, he agreed. He knows what it feels like to have the weight on his soul but he also knows how being relieved of that empowers this moment on.

Randy showed courage when he joined the military just like everyone else along with compassion enough to be able to risk his life for the sake of others. Last night it required a tremendous about of courage for him to call someone like me not knowing how I would react or what I would do with what he had to say.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to acknowledge that I was dishonest about my military service. I have no excuse for my actions, dishonesty is dishonesty, and to those I have offended and or hurt I ask for your forgiveness. I did this with no malicious intent to hurt anyone or to gain anything, again to those I have hurt or offended I ask for your forgiveness.

After I was paralyzed and found myself dealing with all the medical issues and trying to learn how to live with being paralyzed, I wondered how many other people were dealing with the same thing. Thinking about all the things they will never be able to do again. I decided to start The View From 42, to help other people learn to live beyond their disabilities. Not knowing what it would become or how it would actually work. I have done no fundraiser; I have taken in no donations or financial contributions, I have funded everything from the beginning and to this date by myself. Do to some medical complications along the way things got put on hold for a time being. At first it was just going to be training service dogs for people, then after starting surfing and getting more active I realized how this help me and thought it could help other people.

People reached out to me for assistance with wheelchair purchases for their children, family members and or friends. Then people started asking if I could take them surfing, or help them get surfboards or wetsuits. I started of with tacking single individuals surfing with the help from volunteers. Bringing young people with disabilities and there families out for what we called a Southern California Surfing Experience. Then it turned into bigger one-day events with participants coming in from out of state. This was all done to help people with disabilities learn how to live beyond their disabilities, like I had done. A simple thing like a custom wheelchair or a surfing event put on just for them opens their mind to thinking about living their life beyond their disability. They start to see themselves as a person who has a disability instead of a disabled person. There is a difference, a big difference.

I still plan to continue to do this at whatever level I can; I am not sure how that will be now. This is a true honest desire just to help other people who have disabilities and have a desire to live beyond them.

Again I apologize for my dishonesty and misleading statements, and ask for your forgiveness.
Sincerely;
Randy
Email: pleasenojunk@mail.com

This was at the bottom of his email

A persons ability to enjoy life should not be hindered by their disability or their lack of accessibility to the world. Do not tell us what we can not do, help us do what we want to do.

Camp Pendleton Marines hit the beach dude

Camp Pendleton Marines To Collect ‘Toys For Tots’ At Surf Contest
KPBS
By Beth Ford Roth
December 5, 2013

TransWorld SURF
Camp Pendleton Marines collect gifts at the beach

Camp Pendleton Marines will be on hand for the Western Surfing Association's surf contest at San Clemente Pier this Saturday and Sunday. They won't be there to catch waves, though, but to collect Toys for Tots gifts.

WSA is encouraging participants to bring a new, unwrapped toy to the contest, where they'll later be collected by the Marines.
read more here

Hero of Superstorm Sandy dies in surfing accident

Hero of Superstorm Sandy dies in surfing accident
By The Associated Press
The Belle Harbor section of the Rockaways in New York, where so many heroes emerged during Superstorm Sandy, has lost one of them to a tragic surfing death in Puerto Rico.

Friends of 23-year-old Dylan Smith and his family expressed sorrow Monday that someone who saved so many lives during the October storm could lose his own on vacation. A local funeral parlor said funeral arrangements were being made.
read more here

For veterans, a gift from the sea

For veterans, a gift from the sea

It may seem counterintuitive, but surfing can replace a bit of what war has taken away.
By Steve Lopez

August 23, 2009


If you had seen Tatiana Reyes in the water at Zuma Beach last week, gliding smoothly toward the shore, you couldn't have guessed she was nearly killed in a crippling explosion while serving in Iraq. She looked like she could have been one of the surfing instructors.

If you had seen a smiling Richard Pineda stand up cleanly on wave after wave, with confidence and uncanny balance, you couldn't have imagined he needs a GPS device to remember how to get back home after an outing.

The concept sounds counterintuitive at first: You take veterans recovering from brain trauma and other injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan and, for therapy, you put them on surfboards for the first time in their lives, lead them into the chilly, crashing surf and wish them luck.

But this is what the medical staff at the VA hospital in West L.A. is trying, and Pineda is among dozens of veterans who say the prescription is helping.
read more here
For veterans, a gift from the sea
For veterans a gift from the sea

Surfer at New Smyrna Beach bitten by shark

Edgewater surfer bitten by shark off New Smyrna Beach
Gary Taylor | Sentinel Staff Writer
10:10 AM EDT, July 24, 2008
An Edgewater teenager was bitten on the foot by a shark Wednesday while surfing in the Atlantic Ocean off New Smyrna Beach.

It was the 14th shark bit of the year in Volusia County, but only the second that has been classified as a "provoked" bite, said Capt. Scott Petersohn of the Volusia County Beach Patrol.

Troy Zettle, 15, was treated at by rescue workers and driven to a local hospital by relatives, Petersohn said. "It was not a life- or limb-threatening injury," he said.
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