Carving the ‘Dis’ Out Of Disability

An Aspen-based nonprofit is empowering kids with disabilities by teaching them to surf in Costa Rica.

It might come as a surprise that the world’s only surf camp for disabled kids and teens is based here in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, far from any ocean shores.

The organization — Ocean Healing Group — is the brainchild of Frank Bauer, an Aspen volunteer firefighter, longtime local and lifelong surfer.

Since 2008, Ocean Healing has hosted eight weeklong, all-expenses-paid surfing vacations for children with disabilities and spinal cord injuries. Two more camps are planned for this summer. Ocean Healing is funded mostly by donations from Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley and run by local volunteers.

“Who would ever think that you can teach a kid who’s a quadriplegic to surf?” Bauer asked rhetorically. “Those two roads just don’t cross. But when we push the bounds like that, we found it makes a kid think, ‘Well, what else can I do?'”

A native of West Palm Beach, Fla., Bauer moved to Aspen 17 years ago, at age 23.

His passions for surfing and service met four years ago as he was in the process of building a bed-and-breakfast in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. It was very much a for-profit investment in a four-cabin boutique beach hotel and potential surf camp.

As Bauer tells it, a curious coincidence changed his focus.

He recalls sitting in the waiting room at Big O Tires in Basalt, waiting for the tires on his car to be changed. On the television he caught a feature about adaptive surfing technology featuring Christiaan Bailey. Bailey is a professional skateboarder from California who was paralyzed in a skating accident and had begun promoting adaptive ways for disabled people to try out various sports, like surfing.

Bailey had been running day clinics putting disabled kids on surfboards. Bauer envisioned taking the idea to his Costa Rica investment property and giving kids longer-term exposure to adaptive surfing.

“I called my business partner up immediately and said, ‘Stop construction!'” Bauer recalls.

Soon after, he found himself in Costa Rica with an Americans With Disabilities Act manual in hand, and they improbably built an ADA-compliant resort at the end of a dirt road in the tropics.

The for-profit side of the project moved forward, and became Shaka Surf Camp. Around Christmas 2008, Bauer and a group of volunteers hosted their first week-long Ocean Healing Group camp and made surfers out of their first crop of disabled kids.

Bauer recalls pushing a 16-year-old out into the sea for his first ride on an adaptive board and having him turn around, 150 feet from the shore, and say, “That’s the farthest I’ve ever been from my wheelchair.” He’d been in the chair since he was run over by a car as a toddler, and rode a wave to the beach on his own.

While the therapeutic effect of water is certainly a benefit for the kids at Ocean Healing, the empowerment of learning to surf can be life altering.

“We want these kids to feel like there is no disability,” Bauer said. “That the only disability is in their mind, that they can accomplish anything.”

And while a handful of programs around the world offer day clinics taking disabled kids surfing, Ocean Healing remains the only one with a days-long immersion into the sport. As the kids learn to navigate the surf and improve their skills over a full week of twice-a-day lessons, he reasoned, they gain a new identity as surfers.

“The idea is not just to take them surfing but to teach them how to be a surfer,” he said. “Show them, ‘Here’s what you look for in the water,’ ‘Here’s how waves in motion operate,’ and ‘Here’s how you turn a surfboard.'”

The adaptive boards can’t make disabled surfers stand up and ride a wave. But with the use of straps suited to various levels of disability, they can allow paraplegic and even quadriplegic riders to guide a board while riding on their stomachs.

Many go home and keep surfing regularly — and immersing themselves in surf culture.

“What happens is they stop thinking of themselves as a kid in a wheelchair, and start becoming injured surfers,” Bauer said. “We believe that lifestyle really gives them something to hold onto, something to really be proud of.”

The Ocean Healing camps also give a respite to the disabled kids’ primary caregivers and parents. The camp welcomes their families to the resort and gives them a break from the often intensive work of caring for a disabled child, with teams of volunteers picking up the slack. Bailey, the pro skater and adaptive surf promoter, has helped find families for the Ocean Healing program.

Ocean Healing’s goal is to host six week-long camps with different families every year, with a budget of about $50,000. The group’s funds all go toward travel and lodging for families, and development of adaptive surfboards and equipment. Last year they were able to pull off four camps.

As Ocean Healing’s camps and their stable of volunteers have grown since the inaugural trial less than three years ago, word is spreading about their success. Last year, filmmaker Jason McAfee completed “Charlie Don’t Surf,” a full-length documentary about the adaptive surfing concept and Ocean Healing’s camps. He’s hoping to get it onto the film festival circuit this year.

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Written by Andrew Travers of the Aspen Daily News.

The Ocean Healing Group is a non-profit 501c3 foundation, dedicated to providing once in a lifetime, adaptive sports adventure to wheelchair bound youngsters and their parents. It’s their collective mission to expose kids to a wide variety of sports and activities, things they would never have the opportunity to experience otherwise… including but not limited to surfing, snorkeling, zip-line tours, fishing, quad riding, nature tours, and horseback riding.

Ocean Healing Group’s schedule for 2011 includes events, activities and other fun stuff all in an effort to Carve the “Dis” out of Disability. Their goals for this year include:

• To have 4 or more JAWS (Just Add Water Surfing) events, sending at least 12 families on a once in a lifetime trip to Costa Rica.
• Expanding our list of activities to possibly include fun stuff like horseback riding and ATV jungle tours.
• Expanding our program to include a wider range of disabilities such as Autism and TBI.
• Continue our development of sporting equipment and gear designed to assist injured athletes in their quest to accomplish their goals.
• Of course, in order to do this, we will need the continued and new support of you and all of the others who make what we do possible everyday. We feel so blessed to have the support we have and thank all of you for your kind donations which go directly to our adaptive programs. With your help, 2011 can bring an amazing adventure to many children and their primary caregivers, an adventure they deserve and need and an adventure they will never forget about.

Ocean Healing Group is looking for independent, motivated people to volunteer so if you have the time and the willingness to be a part of one of these programs, please send them your resume. The help of amazing volunteers truly makes their adaptive camps possible.

There are several ways you can get involved with Ocean Healing Group. Whether physically or financially, they will appreciate your support, honor your strength and welcome you to their family.

1. Guests: What we do is possible because of the strength and hope of the people we support. If you or someone you know can benefit from our Adaptive Programs, please send an email to our guest relations staff at guest@oceanhealinggroup.org
2. Volunteers: OHG is always looking for purpose driven people to assist in their Adaptive Programs as well as helping in marketing & outreach, media interests, grant and sponsorship support and merchandise design, if you want to be a part of their volunteer force, please send an email to volunteer@oceanhealinggroup.org
3. Sponsorship: With your gift, Oceans Healing Group will help families with a disabled child or adult have a chance to attend truly amazing Adaptive Sports programs and clinics around the world. The activities shown here are no longer reserved solely for the able bodied. We can now help people leave their wheel chair behind and explore the world through a new sense of adventure; to play in a world without limits. Your donation provides travel expenses, lodging & food but so much more than that, they provide rehabilitation of the soul, the knowledge that when they drive themselves to achieve, anything is possible. It is this mindset that is the core philosophy of Ocean Healing Group.

Donations can be made online through the Paypal donate button or by check to:

Ocean Healing Group

PO Box 4974

Aspen, Co. 81612

If you have any questions, please email them at sponsorship@oceanhealinggroup.org and be sure to visit them at www.oceanhealinggroup.org/ and www.shakacostarica.com/

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.