In 2003, while deployed in Iraq, Army captain Andrew Chavez of Santa Fe happened to be inside a Mosul building when it was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade, trapping him in the rubble.
He survived the attack, but months later, while skiing in Austria, Chavez fell, reopening an old appendix injury and causing his stomach to fill with bile. He was medically induced into a coma, and doctors discovered that Chavez had contracted a parasite while in Iraq. It had attacked his internal organs. He bled from his spleen and was declared clinically dead.
Afterward, doctors told his family Chavez would never walk again; they said he’d probably be a vegetable the rest of his life. They advised taking him off life support, and his family agreed. However, because of a paperwork snafu, the plug didn’t get pulled on New Year’s Eve as they’d intended. A week and a half later, Andrew Chavez woke up.
“They said, ‘He’s not going to be able to do this, he’s not going to be able to do that,’ but we’ve been all over the country,” said his brother and caregiver Steve Chavez. “We’ve been zip-lining in Costa Rica, he skis all the time in Colorado, he rides bikes. Everything you could think of doing, this kid tries to do it.”
[image-2]
And on a perfect October morning, Andrew Chavez, assisted by volunteer instructors, surfed the waters near the Pismo Beach Pier. The day marked the second clinic of “Operation Restoration,” a four-day event organized by the Association of Amputee Surfers (AmpSurf), a nonprofit using adaptive surfing as a therapeutic tool for wounded veterans and others with disabilities.
“It helps with his balance. It helps with a lot of stuff,” Steve Chavez said of his brother’s experience. “The healing power of the ocean is very true.”
The sixth annual Operation Restoration kicked off on Oct. 8 with an opening ceremony attended by Rep. Lois Capps and other local dignitaries, followed by a three-hour surf clinic. On the second day, onlookers cheered the participants from shore, each surfer assisted by instructors and teams of “water helpers” who caught the boards and picked them up when they fell.
In addition to surfing, the group engaged in other recreational activities. After the first clinic, they headed to Creston for kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, and fishing. The weekend ended with more kayaking at Port San Luis and, for those who weren’t too worn out, a final surf session. A luau concluded the event.
[image-3]
AmpSurf’s co-founder, Dana Cummings, a Marine Corps veteran, started the nonprofit after losing his left leg in a car accident in 2002. At the first AmpSurf event, Cummings and his instructors taught seven participants how to surf. As of this year, AmpSurf will have taught more than 500 people. Next year marks the program’s 10th anniversary, and organizers are celebrating by expanding farther into Southern California and to the East Coast.
“It’s just great to see it grow and see the effect that it has on everybody: the participants, the volunteers, and all the supporters out here just to cheer them on,” Cummings said. “Everybody’s here for the right reasons, and they can feel it, they know they’re in the right place and that people really care about them.”
AmpSurf’s motto—PIER—stands for Promote, Inspire, Educate, and Rehabilitate. Cummings said the whole point is to get participants to focus on their abilities, not their disabilities.
“When I walk down the street and I have shorts on, everybody just stares at my leg. They focus on what’s wrong with me and what I can’t do,” he said. “For all these folks out here, it’s the same for them. … We just want them to see that if you can do this, you can do whatever you want.”
[image-4]
An Army sergeant in Iraq, Jeremiah Pauley was wounded by an improvised explosive device in 2006 and medically retired. Now living in Santa Rosa, Pauley heard about AmpSurf through the Wounded Warrior Project. Though he’d never surfed before, Pauley jumped at the chance to bond with fellow veterans while having some fun in the process.
On his first day on the water, Pauley was able to stand up on his board, and by the second day of the clinic, he’d already caught the surfing bug.
“I thought it was going to be something that was really difficult to do, but then the first time that I stood up and fell, I thought, ‘That wasn’t that hard,’” he said. “I’m not going to win a competition next week or anything, but I can come out here and have fun with it.”
Operation Restoration wasn’t just open to veterans. After suffering a stroke in 2002, San Luis Obispo resident Kim Hildreth became blind. He met Cummings and started participating in AmpSurf clinics in 2010. The first few sessions, he said, were “pretty brutal.” However, with his instructors’ guidance, he’s been able to consistently ride the waves.
“The hardest thing to learn was the balance, because everybody else has a horizon to fix on,” Hildreth said. “I just have to feel it up through my legs and hips and figure out where I am. It’s been a challenge. … It’s taken some time, but I’ve gotten to the point where it’s actually a lot of fun.”
[image-5]
Without the ability to see, Hildreth relies on his instructors to guide him into a wave, and once he catches it, he’s able to sense where he needs to stand on the board.
“For everybody who said I couldn’t do it,” he said, “it’s like ‘Ha-ha, I faked you out.”’
Operation Restoration participant Julie Carruthers, of Hollywood, lost her right leg up to the hip, and as a “high-level” amputee didn’t think she could ever stand on a surfboard. But on her first day out, she succeeded. That was two years ago, and she’s been addicted to the sport ever since.
“Being out in that water has always been healing for me, but being able to combine it with a sport is energizing and awesome,” she said. “You feel like you can do anything. I never thought I could surf. … With all the volunteers that help us, they make it easy.”
Besides being able to improve her skills during the clinics, Carruthers said she enjoys the camaraderie she’s able to have with others facing similar challenges.
“You learn how people coped with their disabilities, and you just learn a lot,” she said. “It’s very hard to feel sorry for yourself.”
Born without fibula bones, Monica DeNatly, 29, of Morro Bay, surfs with two artificial legs. Starting with AmpSurf a year ago, she goes to clinics regularly and says they give her a sense of accomplishment and self-worth.
[image-6]
“For me, it’s discovering something I never thought I’d be able to do and accomplishing it through their program,” DeNatly said. “They have a pretty fail-proof method of pushing you into the waves and having a nice board that’s pretty easy to stand up. They provided something that I can be successful at, which felt really rewarding as an amputee and something I never thought I could do.”
Steve Chavez credited the AmpSurf program with helping his brother continue his miraculous recovery.
“This world is so big,” he said. “You can do everything and anything that you want to and put your mind to.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas encourages people to put their minds to all sorts of things. Contact him at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 13-20, 2011.