Wheels 2 Water

Wheels 2 Water is another adaptive surfing program in California based out of Huntington Beach.  Organized a little different and with more kinds of adaptive surfboards.  The beach is flatter and it was a little easier to get people in and out of the water.  The beach chair was very useful going back and forth across the sand.   There were more people in chairs at this event so the beach chair was used alot more.  The different surfboards and waveski were great to have as different options for different people.  The other thing I liked was the use of colored rash guards to identify the 'senders' and the 'receivers' in the water.

Operation Amped

 The first adaptive surfing event I have participated in was at Zuma Beach, just north of Malibu.  Pretty much a shore break that was closing out, which was a bit scarry.  Operation Amped, www.operationamped.com , is a program that works primarily with wounded soldiers, not necessarily just amputees.   However, there is another program called Association of Amputee Surfers, http://www.ampsurf.org , that is run by and caters to people with amputations.   Sicky Dicky provided the lifeguard/surf instructors and soft top surf boards and William Morris, a talent agency, provided the volunteer support to put on 'a day at the beach' for about 10 injured soldiers from a nearby VA.   There was a range of injuries including SCI,  TBI's, and  amputee. This is their 8th event of the summer season and some repeat surfers were eager to learn and surf more.

The long road home- costa to colorado

The journey back to San Jose to nothing to take for granted.  The ferry ride is my favorite part of the journey....it happened to be dumping!  They still had the karoke happening and it was a nothing short of hilarious.

Day 10 - tide pools

Today we end up going out to a tide pool and doing some snorkling.  This was a huge tide pool but getting to it was about 100 yards over reef with barnacles.  it was a challenge getting Vijay out there but proved to be well worth the effort.  It was amazing for V to float and swim on his own.  He loved it!  Full body protection is necessary to keep the skin from tearing.  We tried really hard and Vijay still got cut several times

Day 9 - Fishing

Today we have arranged a boat to do some fishing.  We get up early and head out to Mal Pais for a threeeeeee hour tourrrrr, a  threeee hour tourrrr, on Rosita.  Frank ended up landing a Yellow Fin Tuna and Vijay got some other fish that was less desireable, but we ate it.  We had a party that night to celebrate and  share our bounty in hopes to attract some booty.  

Day 8, Beach Clean-up

One of the first things I notice on the beach is trash.  I have a hard time walking past it without picking it up.  This morning, we surfed then went to work picking up trash.  We filled huge bags, making a pile the size of a pick-up in less than an hour.  The whole Shaka surf camp staff and guests were out cleaning up the local beach.  Hopefully, this clean-up effort continues in the future.

Day 7 - Surf

Dawn Patrol!  I wake up and the camp is quiet, a peaceful morning in paradise.   All of sudden the howler monkeys go off and it sounds like a dying cow.  A quick cup 'o cafe con leche and I am off to the beach.  Rounding the corner to the beach a rainbow blesses the waves for the morning.  The waves are uncrowded and fun.  Nothing special, a bit unorganized but some good hollow inside waves.  When I get back the crew is not all up yet so i start making some noise.  One thing I immediately notice is that the case of beer i bought yesterday is gone....well there is one beer left.  Someone got drunk last night.  I make more coffee and write in my journal.  Over the next few hours we work on the surfboard for Vijay;  putting handles on the deck and rigging up a double leash for both ankles to stay together.   We get geared up and head to the beach.  Vijay takes the quad down and we walk with all the boards.  Getting in the water with Vijay consisted of driving the quad up to the water line and then carrying him to the water.  The beach chairs with the huge wheels are the way to go for getting into the water.  You can get people all the way in up to about knee level.  This is a luxury we do not have and resort to the carry.   Once we get him in the water and on the board I quickly realize that a 7' 8'' gun is not the board we want to use.   Christian  (the first para to visit Shaka) designed this board for the camp but it is an intermediate to advanced surfboard.  Vijay had a hard time just staying on the board much less surfing it.  You live and learn!  The session went okay.  We pushed Vijay into some waves and he got a few good waves.  He was starting to get some skin sores on his legs from the stomp pad....another feature that is not needed.  He is not a stand-up surfer so he has no use for the stomp pad.  

Later that evening we sit around and talk about all the different things we could do better.  This is how the adaptive world works....try stuff, learn, try more stuff, learn.  So we are always on the learning curve which is always interesting.

Day 6 - Travel Day

....so they loaded up the van and headed to the tip of the Nicoya, Santa Teresa that is, movie stars and drug gangs.  Where the line up is empty and the waves are heavy, black gold!  2 hr van ride to the ferry with breakfast stop in a cool little town I can't remember.   they ferry is a little hectic but actually has an elevator for wheelchair access.  If you don't arrive early you might get stuck in your car for the ride over.  they park the cars and busses so tight you literally cannot pass without climbing over.  We made it to the elevator on the way over but when we left Vijay was stuck on the bus.  Actually not bad for privacy and overall comfort.  Once you get to Paquera it is about an hour to Shaka.  Overall the trip to Shaka was about 6 hours.  From San Jose, unless you fly, it is 6 hours to Shaka.  It is a journey out there so you better want to get there.   After lunch at one of the new restaurants in Mal Pais we make a quick stop at the beer store.  A case of beer and a bottle of rum ought to last me a couple days.  We arrive at Shaka and get changed for the beach.  After Frank cuts the neighbors fence we follow the path to the road.  the road is about 200 yards long and has more pot holes that a weed farmer.  Deep holes!  Vijay wheelies down with amazing skill, but it is clear this road is vehicle access only.   The beach is amazing once you get there!  It is a perfect learning beach; flat wide and lots of different inside breaks.  Today we don't surf but instead enjoy the sand, rocks and warm water.  The water temp. is about 78 and really comfortable.  The rocks and shells on the beach are of many different varieties and always seem to fascinate me.  We head back to camp after the beach, shower up,  and head 2 miles into town for dinner at this little Argentinian restaurant.  Good food,  good times.....good night.

CR - day 5

It is raining steady by 7am, we are super 'sick' this morning and the idea of zip lines and rappelling in the rain is miserable at best. Vijay and I are committed to our goal and decide to rally despite our pounding heads. Frank decides to curl back up with.....his blankie. So soft and warm he couldn't leave her. Forget him!, we're going to rap a 300 ft line next to a raging waterfall in the rain after ziplineing 2000 feet into the fog at 30 mph. So get our shit and git on it! A little miss-communication got us a little later start and allowed for multiple cups of cafe con leche. After a safety check for all our gear: Wellman harness, Misty ARC harness, chest harness, ascension bar with jumar, extra set of jumars, Aspen Seating custom protector, rain jacket, and camera, we're on our way.
We arrive at Mundo Canopy tours, gear up and we jump in the 4x4 transport Costa Rican stylie. We're going up to the start of the course and come to a steep part in the road that had 2 trenches about 16-18inches deep right in the wheel tracks. "No problem" says the guide. After multiple attemps and some full-on trackor pull excitment he didn't make it. I fall on my ass as I walk down to figure out how we are going to get Vijay up this steep muddy, slick hill with out dropping him. I do not think carrying him is a safe option, and it just so happens there are about 10 horses at the top of the hill. Vijay said he wanted to ride a horse. So the guide gets the horse and we haul all the gear and his wheelchair to the start of the canopy tour. We had one person on each side of him and he rode like a champ! His warm up is a jug 50 ft up to the top of the zipline sart. One of the things we were here to do was test and demo the Misty ARC harness. It is this new climbing harness designed to support the entire waist with a rigid seat. The harness worked great, but at the top Vijay switches to the Wellman harness. The Wellman chaps are more suited for the rappel which is apparently in the mist somewhere. It is pretty amazing, the zip line just disappears after about 1000ft. While we are gearing up on the top of this tower this tucan perches on this tree right next to the tower that is about the same height and starts talkin to us. Loud little guys! The view from the tower over looks this huge gorge, the fog is coming in and out and drizzel turns to full on rain. Now we're havin' fun! Vijay is rigged up and we are ready to do our first zip which disappears into the mist, it is pounding rain and I'm pretty damn stoked to be alive! Rain seems to be a non-issue for safety. I clip in and go. At first the rain slapping me in the face felt good, then I started hauling ass it was like a spa treatment or something. By the time we get to the rappel the rain has stopped and unfortunately so did my camera. One day I have some more pics of the rap I took with Vijays camera. We both rappeled down, but only went about half way. It was already 3pm and we still needed to zipline out. Everything takes a little time to set up plus we were setting up multiple 4-1 haul systems to get from zip tower to zip tower. We jug out together and have a moment hanging off this cliff next to a 278ft raging waterfall. This is what we came here for, right now, right here, hanging off the side of this cliff! It is kinda funny I sold all of my climbing gear this spring. I was purging.
We get back about 6pm and I go straight for the tequilla and a hot shower. We have dinner with the family that owns the hotel that night and tell them about our adventure of the day and overall our experience during the week. They are very happy and excited about working with us more and getting No Limit Tour up and running. They are really interested in Shaka Surf camp which is our destination first thing in the morning. They have decided they want to personally drive us there and stay a night with us at Shaka and go to the beach for the weekend. We are all about a free ride in a van, buses are fun and all, but not that fun. Enought of the rain, to the beach!

CR - Day 4

Today we are off to the Sarapiqui river. Beautiful little Class 3/4 river through the jungle. The water can rise in a short period of time and can go from mellow to raging quickly. As we drove through the pounding rain on the way to the put-in we had a good talk with one of the guides who broke his back kayaking. Crazy kid is still kayaking even though he wakes up every day with varying degrees of numbness in his legs. The put-in has about 100 feet of large slippery boulders to negotiate, so just getting to the water was exciting. This requires a mandatory carry across boulders Vijay and probably the most difficult part of the trip for anyone in a chair, especially if the guy is 200lbs. Vijay weighing in at a buck forty was not much of a problem. For support in the boat, Vijay used an Aspen Seating custom seat with a Crazy Creek strapped to the boat. The custom seat by Aspen Seating is amazing. It is basically a portable custom wheelchair seat that is covered in bomber material for outdoor sports. Protecting the ass in a huge deal for anyone in a wheelchair. A pressure sore can take an hour to get and 3 months to heal. So this system worked pretty good but another strap or two would have been nice. Next time we'll get our strap on.....the other thing that would be nice would for the whole thing to be one big unit. We get rigged on the boat and off we go. The river is small now but evidence of huge water levels is very present. The put-in, for example....all those rocks we had to negotiate, at high water levels those are a rapid. As we wind our way through the jungle we begin to see lots of amazing birds. The jungle is so amazing anyway and boating through it is even more amazing. I guess growing up in the mountains and running a lot of desert rivers I come from a very different river environment. All rivers have amazing qualities and this one is no different. We stop for a break and cut up mango, papaya, pineapple and some other deliciously yummy fruit. I can't resist stacking rocks and find some of the most amazing river rock to stack demonstrating natures balance is greater than we will ever know. We get to the put-out and it starts to rain really hard! Time really is so much of life. I jump into guide mode and help break down the raft and get all the gear in the van. By the time we left it had already formed a little river on the dirt (mud) road we were on. Had we been 10 minutes later we would have had a hell of a time getting out. Great day overall; the access is a little difficult for someone in a wheelchair, but certainly doable for the hearty.

That night we head to Tabacon Hot Springs. A natural hot river heated by Arenal Volcano. An amazing place well worth the pricey admission. There are about 15 pools that wind up through the jungle with elaborate landscaping linning the paths. The jungle with exotic flowers lit up at night is pretty amazing, especially when your soaking in a river that is warmer than your hot tub. The pathways were perfect for a wheelchair to get around. There are mini waterfalls to soak under in multiple locations, a swim-up bar in the lowest pool and a walk up bar up at the top of the hotsprings. I was kinda waiting for Tatoo to jump out in his little white suit...his smug little smile and a slight head bow..." Misther Crouch, how is your evening sir? Can I interest you in any of these fine deserts?" pointing to several beautiful, and very curvy fruits. Okay, so that was a little Fantasy Island moment. Anyhoo, we had a good time and would highly recommend going.

CR - Day 3

So today is a wildlife viewing boat ride on Cano Negra. The tour company today is very interested in what we are up to and how to accomodate wheelchairs. This was kind of interesting because this tour was pretty straight forward and by far the mellowest tour we did. Their concerns were more about transportation and negotiating stairs, whereas yesterday we were concerned about safely supporting Vijays lower body while zips across a 300ft gorge at about 30-40mph.

We get picked up and drive an hour and a half north, 6 miles from the Nicaragua border, to Cano Negra, a Class 1 river with some amazing wildlife. Bring your telephoto if you want good pictures. On the way there, after the Iguana Rufuge that had ginormous iguanas, we came across a 12ft boa these people had caught. I guess the snake had eaten one of their chickens. I thought they would be having chicken for dinner, but apparently they had called the fire department. The boa was the most excitment of the tour, but we saw a bunch of amazing birds, a 3 toed slough, long nosed bats, big-ol-lizards, howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, some other strange jungle animals, and a entire boat full of ferral tourists. Overall, an interesting tour that could accomodate any disability.
We get back to the hotel about 4ish and gather for a safety meeting prior to our 120ft bunge jump adventure. The jump is off a crane that is two blocks from the hotel. So we decide that Frank and I should jump, then figure out if it is safe for Vijay with the equipment we have. They don't have the paraglider harness for Vijay and we have some concerns about his lower body getting hurt. So I jump first and I'm freaked out just looking down. I'm a virgin bunge jumper so the pucker factor was huge! 120 ft is a long freakin way down! You freefall for at least 80 ft. and about halfway down I was hoping it would end, NOW! Once I rebounded and knew I was alive, I was high as a kite on adrenaline! So the next time, I jumped with a waist and chest harness and went off sitting down. This was better but the lower body needed to be more secure and equalized better with the chest. My legs got wrapped up in the bunge cord on my rebound up and I had to wiggle my leg free. There are some definate safety issues with bunge jumping, and all in all, it is not the best activity for people that have pre-existing medical conditions.

Tequilla shots followed and was washed down con muchas cervesas.

CR- Day 2

Our first adventure is a canopy tour with 8 zips lines that weave throught the jungle, crossing a huge gorge several times. three of the zip are over 2000ft long reaching speeds upwards of 40mph. It's pretty amazing! The whole tour over looks Lake Arenal which is an amazing background. We begin the journey on the SkyTram which brings you up to the start of the canopy tour. This is a slow ride through the tops of the trees in the jungle giving you a view of the Vocano and Lake Arenal.
From there we weave our way thru the jungle on a cable up to several hundred feet off the ground. After the tour we ate, went back to the hotel and discussed ideas on how to do what we just did, better. Dinner and drinks brought us to the end of the night, well the end of the night for Vijay and I. Frank was on the prowl.

Costa Rica - Day 1

Flew into San Jose, Costa Rica @ 5:30am on a red-eye out of Denver. We took a taxi to Escazoo, a suburb of San Jose and the residence of Joey, a friend of Franks. Joey is from LA and now lives in Escazoo. Basically it is the Beverly Hills of San Jose. Diplomates and movies stars live there which odd because Joey lives there.

A couple hours later, Don Jose (Jose) picks us up and takes us to his hotel see here about 2 hours away in La Fortuna, a town near the Arenal Volcano. This hotel had burned down and when it was rebuilt wheelchair accessibilitly was built into about 12 of the rooms. One of their goals is too attract people with disabilities and create tour company call 'No Limit Tours', specializing in tours that are accessible. Our mission for the week was to go on all these different tours and give them advice and feedback on the accessiblity of each tour. After arriving (about 2hours from San Jose) we had a few drinks, ate some of the best Costa rican food I have eaten and went to bed early.

Baby steps forward

.....off to Costa Rica! I leave in three days for a journey down to CR with Vijay and Frank. Vijay is a T5 parapeligic (paralyzed from the nipples down). Frank co-owns Shaka Surf Camp in Santa Teresa. Check it out: http://www.shakacostarica.com/ We first travel to the Arenal region and will stay at La Fortuna which is an ADA (American Disabilities Act) compliant resort. Basically they can accomodate wheelchairs. You can check them out at http://www.fortunainn.com/ They claim to be the first fully accessible hotel in Costa Rica. We going to check it out. Our main focus is not the accomodations but rather the activities. Vijay is bringing down the Wellman harness to test out with the zip line canopy tours. Mark Wellman pretty much invented climbing for guys in wheelchairs. After several days there we are off to the beach to check out Franks place and teach Vijay to surf. This trip is going to be interesting and full of lots of learning...I'm so psyched!