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thedrifter
09-03-06, 08:15 AM
Troops who lost limbs in Iraq learn to surf the Pacific

By: JOHN ROGERS - Associated Press

PISMO BEACH, Calif. -- Navy corpsman Derek McGinnis knew that losing his left leg to a suicide bomber wouldn't stop him from surfing again. As a child of 1970s California, riding waves felt like a birthright.

So he rallied nearly a dozen other wounded-in-action amputees he met while recovering in Texas and headed for one of California's last old-fashioned beach towns.

The roiling ocean was a second home to some. The closest others had come to riding a wave were B-movie inspired dreams. All were to learn from a champion surfer who himself had just one leg.

"I have a board and (have to) make sure I keep on using it," said McGinnis, a Navy petty officer and medic who began surfing at 10 in Northern California. "I said, 'Man, I've got to be able to do it. It's possible."'

So there he stood one foggy August morning, wearing an ear-to-ear grin and a brand new wet suit.

Another on the beach was Tim Brumley, who had never handled a surfboard though he looked the part with his short-cropped, blond locks. The former paratrooper, who lost his leg in Afghanistan last year, had never even seen the Pacific save for a fleeting glimpse when he visited San Francisco as a kid.

As a teenager growing up in New Mexico, Brumley had seen a classic flick filled with chase scenes, shootouts, skydiving and some of the best surfing ever committed to celluloid.

"When I saw 'Point Break' I said, 'That's it! I want to surf!"' declared the jovial 26-year-old veteran of the U.S. Army Airborne Infantry as he pounded down bottle after bottle of beer and told war stories at a seaside bar the night before his first lesson.

Among his stories was how he walked into a building where a booby trap changed his life. Ironic, he recalled, since he had survived unscathed the year before, when he parachuted into Iraq as explosions rattled the air and tracer bullets whizzed by.

"I've got to drink or else I won't be able to sleep, I'm so excited!" Brumley said as he ordered another round. "I'll be hung over tomorrow, but that's all right."

He looked clear-eyed though anxious the next morning at zero-seven-hundred hours -- 7 a.m., way too early for all but the most serious surfers to be standing on chilly sand.

Nearly 200 miles north of Los Angeles, Pismo Beach is perhaps most famous to tourists for its clams and funny name. To surfers, Pismo Beach means smooth waves, mild weather and pure white beaches more likely to yield a sand dollar than a rock. It is one of a vanishing breed of surfside towns, a place where die-hards still park beat-up RVs for free right next to the sand and head to the waves.

Better yet for McGinnis and friends, it's also home turf for champion surfer Rodney Roller. After losing a leg in a forklift accident 16 years ago, Roller returned to the water lugging a 25-pound wooden limb that could withstand corrosive salt water -- bartered from a doctor-surfer for a board that Roller made.

Now a champion amputee surfer, Roller, 39, teaches other amputees. After McGinnis tracked Roller down online, he agreed to instruct the military men for free if they could get to California. He figured it was payback for all the people who helped him get back in the water.

McGinnis met most of his crew at the Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Houston, Texas, where he was recovering after a suicide bomber crashed an explosives-laden car into his ambulance two years ago. Operation Comfort, a San Antonio-based organization that helps wounded veterans rebuild their lives, raised money for the trip.

Among them was 24-year-old former Army Sgt. Chang Wong, who lost both legs when his tank ran over an explosive. Others had lost an arm to the war. Jesse Schertz, a 22-year-old retired Marine corporal from Peoria, Ill., had been badly burned and lost a leg.

But the surf was up now, and for the moment none of that mattered.

"It's going to be a blast," promised McGinnis. "It will show you can achieve anything. No matter what, you can overcome."

His immediate goal was to stand up on his board within 30 minutes of hitting the water.

"I think by 07:30 I'll be standing, sir, no worries," the 28-year-old petty officer had predicted with quiet confidence the night before.

During a brief demonstration on shore, novices including Brumley, Schertz and Wong were shown how to get on a board and maintain their balance. First they were taught how to paddle, sometimes awkwardly -- "one arm at a time" as the instructor said.

"I've only got one arm, dude," shouted Michael Owens, a 22-year-old ex-Marine who lost the other one when his convoy was ambushed in Iraq. That rejoinder quickly broke up the group. It was time to get wet.

In the first few minutes some missed waves, some waves capsized boards, and in a few instances, some boards rocketed forward as if shot from cannons. The riders would rise up, only to tumble cartoonishly into the water.

Then a cheer rose and enveloped the beach. McGinnis had backed up his prediction with a nice ride 30 minutes into the day.

The cheers continued as Owens, using his one-arm paddle technique, began cruising.

To the west, beyond the breakers, a small herd of curious sea lions stopped briefly and ogled the scene before swimming on. Seemingly on cue, a pair of dolphins leaped majestically out of the water.

Brumley got to his feet just briefly before his board shot out from under him. It was long enough to give him something to brag about to the wife and young son waiting at home in Texas. And this was only his first day.

There would be two more practice days, then an informal competition in which Billabong was offering a surfboard as first prize. Andy Soule, a double amputee, won the board with a wave-riding handstand.

Although he didn't win, just being there was satisfaction enough for Brumley.

"I'm thinking about telling my wife, telling her we're moving out here to Cali," Brumley, exhausted but exhilarated, said as he waded to shore for a respite. "Just surf everyday for the rest of my life. It wouldn't be bad, you know."

On the Net:


www.operationcomfort.org

www.ampsurf.com

Ellie