“Can I borrow your leg for an IG Photo?”
It all began one day late in the afternoon, here in Austin, Texas during a simple conversation between friends about wanting to impact their community with the skills and resources they had on hand. As with all great things, we had small beginnings. A single event, thrown by a bunch of Austin surfing friends, to raise money for disabled veterans, but this idea, has since become so much more!
Our first event, “Get Wet with a Vet,” was held on Lake Austin, at our favorite local spot, Hula Hut. The Austin surfing community responded in force, with almost more boats than we had riders! Five private boats showed up, donated their day, their gas, and awesome waves, for our few Veteran riders. It was an amazing day of making memories, and sparked a conversation about, “Well, what next?” We couldn’t miss the huge “sign” in front of us, blinking neon lights, that there was a need for something like this in our town. And so began the creation of “The Other 23,” a community of surfers, therapists, coaches, and selfless volunteers focused on providing Surf Therapy camps for veterans with physical disabilities, TBI, PTSD and more.
The Other 23 was officially recognized as a nonprofit organization based Texas in March 2018. It is a community of volunteers focused on understanding and supporting the “23 hours” of the day, that our members are not at our event. We want to host incredible camps encouraging positive mentalities and avoiding the words “I can’t,” but more than that, we want people to “come for the event, and stay for the community,” as our motto says. In May 2018, the Austin community, with the incredible support of the teams from “One More Wave” and “Wake for Warriors,” hosted a multi-day surf camp.
“Get Wet with a Vet 2.0,” featured three boats, 16 veterans from three coastlines, surf coaches, world class life guards, and medics, all piled into one lake house on Lake Austin. It was a weekend for the books! We spent two days wake surfing, jet surfing, and using e-foils, followed up with a third day, simply enjoying the “ocean” waves at Austin’s local surf park, NLand. There were moments of side splitting laughter, of emotional walls falling, and of tears shared by all. When a current US Seal Team member finally stands up on his board after multiple failed attempts, throws his hand in the air while yelling, “You gotta try this!,” or when you see a veteran
with a missing leg turn his “disability” into an afterthought as he effortlessly glides across the water andhen a retired combat medic, with ALS, who has wanted to surf his whole life, gets to learn both wake surfing and ocean surfing in one weekend, followed by the team from One More Wave, hand delivering his very own custom surf board, detailed with precision by Addict Surf Boards in California. . .these are the moments we live for. I watched as conversations unfolded, relationships were built, and I could almost see the fear of judgement, the anger, and the isolation that some of us were struggling with just melt away, replaced by laughter and hugs, tears and memories. I remember looking around the campfire that last night and realizing I probably would never be around this same group of men and women, at the same time, ever again. . .but I will never forget the impact that they made on my life, my self drive, and on my soul.
It was the moment that I realized, “We did it,” we’d actually pulled off our dream, together, as a community, when, I heard someone yell over the campfire, “Hey Tony! Can I borrow your leg for an IG post?” I think it was the closest I’ve come to peeing myself laughing, since I watched my brother fall off his tricycle.
The response by the Austin community, and the surfing community as a whole, (“THANK YOU” to Taylor Knox for flying in and surfing with us! You are one of the dopest individuals I have met) has been truly incredible. From Sail & Ski donating two beautiful Nautique surf boats for the weekend to, Tito’s Vodka, LT Plumbing, Mighty Swell, Hula Boat Care, Tequila 512 (it was Cinco De Mayo, after all) and many others, donating food, drinks, sunscreen, sunglasses, and all the volunteers, we couldn’t have done it without you. We will never forget the way the teams from Jetsurf ATX, Brigade Wakesurfing, Lift Foils and Tuk Tuk boards stepped up to donate boards for our veterans to enjoy.
We could not be happier to be developing events and opportunities around Texas, and eventually the nation, that will bring a simple form of effective “therapy” to our veterans. Studies on surfing, show that the effects of being propelled through the water, effortlessly, trains the synapses of our mind to recognize the feelings of joy and happiness more efficiently. Who doesn’t need some of that? We are so proud to be able to provide this opportunity, with our community’s support, to such a deserving group of men and women.
So, what’s next for us? For consistent updates, you can always stay in contact with our team, directly, through our website. (www.theother23.org) We are currently building long term partnerships and relationships with sponsors and donors in order to host multiple camps per year, alongside dozens of single day events. We are excited to be working with national level surfing and wake surfing competitions, in order to help them open adaptive surf divisions within their ranks. We are exploring the opportunity to partner with a very effective adaptive training program here in Texas, by providing a week of surf therapy to complement their already impactful
multi-month program.
As you can see, we have no small dreams for our impact. We are dreaming up new ideas every day, we are passionate about growing our team, and we are here to provide endless waves to our veteran and adaptive athlete communities! The Other 23 is focused on providing a community intent on supporting our veterans. We would love to have you involved!
Links for Reference:
https://journals.lww.com/jpojournal/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2011&issue=01000&article=00006&type=Fulltext