• Current Issue
  • About Surfing Medicine
    • History
    • About
    • Team
    • Submissions
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • A Call for Submissions
  • Surfer’s Medical Association
  • Archive (1987-2011)

Helping Vets to Feel the Healing Waters

Oct 30, 2013 ~ Author Surfing Medicine Staff

I have been meaning to write this column for several weeks and after spending a day helping at Operation Surf in Santa Cruz, now is the time. I also wanted to write about a special boat docked in Monterey called the Freedom, as its purpose is to help veterans of Vietnam, The Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan.

This column may be a bit longer than the normal 600 words I try to shoot for every two weeks, but it has some moving videos as well as important information about our vets and programs that help them.

helping_vets_surfer2

Terry Bare, Director of Media Relations for Monterey Bay Veterans, Inc sent this to me several weeks ago and now is the time for it to surface. Also please hit the website www.mbv.org to view their program and what they do.

PRESS RELEASE – March 8, 2013
NEWS FROM THE SPORTS REHAB CENTER
MONTEREY BAY VETERANS, INC.

World’s First Disabled-Assisted Dive Boat Under Construction–Here in Monterey!

The Sports Rehab Center of Monterey Bay Veterans, Inc., a non-profit organization in Monterey County that focuses its efforts on supporting disabled veterans in the pursuit of sports and life, is proud to announce the ongoing development of a open-water dive boat uniquely configured with a hydraulic diver lift to be fitted on the Center’s vessel, Freedom–quite possibly the first-such equipped boat of its kind in the world! This initiative provides much improved safety and ease of water ingress/egress for physically-challenged divers. This is an exciting new development in the organization’s ability to support our warriors from Monterey County, as well as those statewide and around the nation.

This new capability, engineered by Chris Delucchi with fabrication supervised by Perry Settlemoir of Sierra Design & Manufacturing, gives the Center a truly unique capacity to lower and raise disabled divers (up to, and including, wheelchair-level) and their dive assistants into the water for a host of marine-related activities and training. Program goals are to assist as many disabled as possible to enjoy the benefits of open-water diving and swimming opportunities; and, in conjunction with professional SCUBA instructor Frank Degnan, provide training, certification and a network of dive buddies to the maximum number of trained and qualified disabled divers.

The Sports Rehab Center is excited to soon unveil this new capability for the benefit of our disabled veterans and divers. We fully expect the world to take notice! The device will be fitted to the Freedom and scheduled for a maiden voyage in May.

The Center provides transportation assistance for the disabled at major area events, including all Laguna Seca races, the Monterey Jazz Festival, California International Air Show, California Rodeo, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Tournament, First Tee Open, & Concours d’ Elegance.

Also coming up for Monterey Bay Veterans, Inc, is the 26th Annual Wheelchair Salmon Derby on Saturday, April 27, 2013. All physically-challenged members of the community are invited to participate. A banquet will follow the fishing day, with prizes awarded to the top anglers.

Monterey Bay Veterans, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, that has provided disabled veterans an opportunity to participate in a recreational sports rehabilitation program for over 26 years, on a year-around basis. If you would like to learn more about the organization or provide support/donations, please see our website at www.mbv.org for more details and videos of our latest initiatives to assist physically-restricted divers and veterans; or, contact us at:

John Whitacre, Executive Director; or William Terry Bare, Director, Media Relations
Monterey Bay Veterans, Inc. Sports Rehab Center
Phone: 831-901-0217 or 831-402-7019
Fax: 831-449-0368
Email: mbvinc@pacbell.net or tbare27@yahoo.com
Website: www.mbv.org

Operation Surf, www.operationsurf.com, is an incredible program that is based in San Luis Obispo area, but holds one of their surf events in Santa Cruz. You want to watch the video as it tells of one young Iraq/Afghanistan vet whose plan was to kill himself after he attended the Santa Cruz event last year. The ocean experience changed his life.

Last Saturdays (April 20, 2013) article in the Herald’s Religion section told about Franciscan brother and priest Christian Mondar. In the article he said, “Water is a powerful symbol of life. We know life originated in the water millions of years ago. We can not live without water….” In my book, this is right on. The healing waters of the oceans work in mysterious ways.

helping_vets_surfer

helping_vets_group

Posted in Rehabilitation - Tagged Rehabilitation, Surfing Therapy, Veterans, Vets
←
→
Comments are disabled

Summer 2018 Issue #31 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • No Other Options (a true story)
  • Big Wave Surfing: A physician’s perspective
  • Origins of the Paddle Out Ceremony
  • Case Report: 63 y.o. male surfer “found down”
  • What Happened to Zika?
  • Orthopedic Injuries in Professional Surfers: A Retrospective Study at a Single Orthopedic Center

Summer/Fall 2017 Issue #30 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • Don’t Eat the Fish!
  • A Surfing Life
  • The SMA Barefoot Doctor Course
  • The Surfer Health Study
  • Terry Farrell Interview
  • Case Report: Eye Trauma from a Surfboard

Summer 2016 Issue #29 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • Catching Waves: Perspectives of Physicians Who Surf
  • Should you Frika about Zika?
  • Case Report: A 29-Year-Old Female Surfer with a Thigh Laceration
  • Case Report: Central Cord Syndrome in a Bodyboarder
  • Images from Surfing Medicine
  • Druku’s Life
  • Druku: SMA Remembers a Great Man
  • SMA Conference Report – Nicaragua 2016

Summer 2015 Issue #28 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor: Surfing Medicine to the Extreme
  • Sun Protection for Surfers
  • Cold Water Surfing and Hypothermia
  • 2013 Triple Crown + HIC Pro Injury Report
  • Wanna pee on my Wana? Sea Urchin Injuries, a Literature Review
  • Larger Than Life, Don James, MD
  • Granny and Doc
  • SMA Nicaragua Conference Report, May 28 – June 4, 2015

Winter 2014-15 Issue #27 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • Beware the Devil Fish – “Don’t tread on me”
  • SURF: A Unified Surfing Competition Medical Reference Form
  • Surf Stronger, Paddle Longer
  • Sea Ulcers
  • The SMA Scholarship Program
  • Tavi 2014 Summary
  • ASLS Portugal Conference

Fall 2013 Issue #26 Table of Contents

  • A Message from the (new) Editor
  • Case Report: A Nicaraguan Stowaway
  • Knee Injuries in the Barrel: How Heavy and Deep Can You Go?
  • Concussions in Surfers
  • Surfer’s Ear – The Bane of Cold Water Surfers
  • Surfing Injuries – Literature Review
  • Keeping the Stoke: Dealing with Declining Competence in the Aging Surfer
  • Helping Vets to Feel the Healing Waters

Fall 2019 Issue #32 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • Surfing Injuries at the Pipe Masters 2013-2017
  • A Non-Healing Surf-Wound
  • Images in Surfing Medicine
  • Terry Farrell Tribute
  • Surfing USA, a Literature Review
  • The Baker: Archives of the SMA

Fall 2020 Issue #33 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • In the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Should Surfers Continue to Surf?
  • Improving Safety in Surfing
  • Case Report: Widespread Pruritic Papules after Bodyboarding in Long Island
  • Case Report: Severe Fin Laceration
  • Tourniquets and Hemorrhage Control

Fall 2022 Issue #35 Table of Contents

  • Message from the Editor, 2022
  • Life Rolls On
  • Beware the Leash: Seymour Fracture of the Finger
  • Bill Jones Ph.D, in Memoria
  • The Old Man and the Sea: Video on Surfiatrics from the 2022 World Congress on Extreme Sports Medicine
  • Common Surfing Injuries: Video on Surfing Injuries from the 2022 World Congress on Extreme Sports Medicine
  • Images in Surf Medicine
  • Literature Review: Is Surfer’s myelopathy an acute hyperextension-induced myelopathy? A systematic synthesis of case studies and proposed diagnostic criteria.
  • 2022 Magdalena Bay Conference Report

Fall 2021 Issue #34 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • Impact of SMA Conferences on Wellbeing
  • Surfing and Health in the Covid-19 Era: A Narrative Review
  • Case Report: Femur Fracture in a Kitesurfer
  • Images in Surfing Medicine
  • Characteristics of Surfers as Bystander Rescuers in Europe
  • Acute Injuries in Surfing: A Systematic Review
  • Mag Bay 2021

Browse by Category

  • Acute Surfing Injury (22)
  • Assorted Flotsam and Jetsam (6)
  • Case Report (13)
  • Chronic Surfing Injury (9)
  • Conference Report (1)
  • Conferences (2)
  • Environmental Injury (10)
  • History of Surfing Medicine (2)
  • Images in Surfing Medicine (2)
  • Infectious Disease (5)
  • Letter from the Editor (10)
  • Literature Review (9)
  • Original Research (6)
  • Other (4)
  • Rehabilitation (3)
  • Surfing Conferences (6)
  • Travel Medicine (5)
  • Uncategorized (1)

Tag Cloud

Abscess ACL repair Aging Auditory Exostosis Big Wave Surfing Botfly Central America Concussion Conference Report Dangerous Marine Animals Dermatobium Homonis Drowning Evacuation External Auditory Exostosis Femur fractur Head Injury injury kitesurfing Knee Injury Literature review: Surfing Injuries Marine Envenomations Message from Editor Nambila Paddle Out Ceremony Palliative Care Pro Surfing Rehabilitation Sea Ulcer Stingray Summer Surfer's Ear Surfing Surfing Death Surfing Injury Surfing Therapy Swimmer's Ear Tavarua Veterans Vets

Copyright Notice

All written content on this website is the copyright of the Surfer's Medical Association. Material may not be reproduced for commercial or non-commercial uses without express permission from editor. Contact the Editor to request the appropriate permission.

© 2022

Contact the Editor

Contact the editor at ANathanson@Lifespan.org.

Join SMA

Learn more about Surfer's Medical Association
Top