SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Nearly 150 veterans from across the country have come to San Diego in the name of sport.
“I wanted to learn a new sport,” Rosetta Pride, a U.S. Army Veteran, said.
The sounds of clapping and cheering are just as loud as the waves in La Jolla.
It’s not for those who surf the break regularly but for those who served our country.
“I never surfed before, but I want to step out of my comfort zone,” Pride said.
“This is actually my 2nd time on a surfboard. The 1st time was here last year,” Ben Carr, a U.S. Navy Veteran, said.
Where they are the Department of Veterans Affairs National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic in San Diego.
"They work hard emotionally and physically to get here,” Jenny Vulpis, a recreation therapist with National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic, said. “They have A variety of abilities and disabilities ranging from PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and amputations. So this is giving them the opportunity to get out and try sports again since they've had their injury.”
It’s the 18th year that veterans from all over the U.S. have come here for the five-day clinic. The VA said it gives veterans a chance to improve their rehabilitation and quality of life through training in adaptive sports.
“I have disabilities as well as some of the other ones, but you can't see my disabilities. But some of the ones that have a missing limb. That's motivation to me to not complain and to keep moving,” Pride said.
Moving forward in their recovery, one step at a time and one wave at a time.
"I look back on this day and it carries me and actually gives me healing tools that changes my life,” Carr said. “I get to just take all the demons, all the anxiety, all the battles, all of the PTSD, and it’s out there. It's not coming back into the shore. It didn't come in on the surf. It stays out in the ocean. Best day ever.”
