“If Life Gets Too Hard, There’s Always the Ocean”

US and UK army vets, wounded physically and mentally on the dry, sandy battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan have found deep healing by getting wet, specifically surfing. This week’s “Ocean People” are the wet healers and healed.

Returning veterans, one third of whom suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders, are finding healing on a surfboard.  In a recent article in Psychology Today, “Surf Therapy and Being in the Ocean Can Alleviate PTSD,”  surfer and filmmaker Josh Izenberg talks about his new film “Resurface” (available on Netflix) and how various organizations (Operation Surf, Amazing Surf Adventures, Warrior Surf and others) are using surfing and the healing power of the ocean to bring some relief to wounded warriors.

I first learned about these projects from the book Blue Mind by Wallace J Nichols, a celebration of “your brain on water.”  He recounts the many studies from neuroscience, psychology and sociology about how living near the ocean, spending time in any kind of water, and just painting your room blue not only improves happiness, creativity and reduces stress, but actually can heal. Nichols has listed all the peer reviewed research studies, therapy programs and medical endorsers in a project called “Blue Mind Rx.” 

One example is a program called Warrior Surf, started by a veteran who was having a lot of trouble coming back from Iraq and learning to live again.  He had been a surfer and he found when he went back to the sea, he could calm down, trust, breath.  His therapist had already suggested a support group with other vets, and when he told his group about surfing they wanted to do it too.  They found surfing teachers who were vets and could understand their challenges.  Soon their families wanted to join in.  A new healing community was born.

One vet in the film, double amputee Bobby Lane, says, “When I came back from Iraq, I started drinking a lot to help me with those issues, memories, pain.  Then I was just drinking to get to sleep but sometimes you don’t want to close your eyes.  After that first wave I have such an overwhelming respect for the ocean, it is so gentle and so fierce.  When I caught that wave, I felt like a part of me died and I felt like I was reborn.  Now I see it, if life gets too hard, there’s always the ocean.”

Filmmaker Izenburg says there are at least five reasons why surfing heals trauma and stress. I’ll just quote from the Psychology Today article:

“First, the ocean itself has the cathartic ability to wash away negative emotions by putting them in a context of something much bigger and more powerful than someone's individual life existence.

“The second reason was that learning to surf puts you in the flow channel where you get into "the zone." When you're in the zone, the stress or trauma of your daily life seems to dissolve.

“The third reason Josh gave for the power of surfing to alleviate symptoms of PTSD is that surfing requires a singularity of focus that literally takes your mind off everything else going on in your life. Surfing forces you to focus on the task at hand and stay in the present tense.

“Fourthly, the adrenaline rush of surfing can recreate the novelty that many veterans may have grown accustomed to in combat but gets squelched by the ho-hum aspects of daily civilian life.

“Lastly, the physical exertion from a day of surfing is exhausting and literally wipes you out so that you sleep better at night. Insomnia is one of the most insidious aspects of PTSD. Surfing is an excellent drug-free sleep aid.”

I am neither a vet nor a surfer, but I am moved by these accounts and ideas. With humility and deep respect for the sacrifices vets make to their bodies and soul, I offer a few reflections:

• Surfing and combat seem extremely different and strangely similar. Surely there is nothing farther from macho destroy the enemy combat than the groovy “play hooky” life style of the surfer. But both pit one small person against a massive force.
• And while both start with one soldier or surfer facing danger alone, quickly evolves a “band of brothers/sisters” culture, where they rely on each other, teach each other, support each other, risk to rescue each other. Both lifestyles demand long periods of waiting in solitude, pierced by dramatic and dangerous rushes.
• Surfers and soldiers I have known seem to prefer the company of others like them; they have a shared language and project a sense of being outsiders. We know how hard it is for returning vets to readjust to civilian life, but I’ve gotten the same vibe from surfers, like the ones I’ve met in the ocean conservation world. They will clean up and play the role of citizen activist with all their heart, but they’d much rather be out on the water.
• Soldiers and surfers also project an image of being tough guys and gals, but they are so very vulnerable on battlefield or ocean. In these comparisons I intend no disrespect to the danger or nobility of military service. I simply stand in awe at the healing power of the ocean. In my own much easier life, I too benefit from that Blue Ocean Rx. When life gets hard, there’s always the ocean.

Copyright © 2017 Deborah Streeter