After 15 deployments, Navy SEAL Alex West returned home a different man.
“[It] really put a lot of strain on my body,” he explained, and that strain left West struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and a traumatic brain injury.
But, despite the pain and trauma from his time in Iraq and Afghanistan, one thing still remained a constant: West’s love for the water.
“I joined the Navy to be a SEAL,” he says. “I think there is something special about the saltwater.”
It comes as no surprise, then, that West would find healing and recovery in the waves.
Tapping into the sense of wholeness he found in the water, he turned to surfing as a way to cope with the after-effects of war.
“The moment that you catch a wave, there’s something about it in your mind that there is nothing else that goes on in the world,” he shared. “You just step away from that everyday life of getting ready for deployments or for combat.”
Turns out, he wasn’t the only vet to find a sense of calm in the water.
Fellow Navy SEAL James McFadden found comfort from the ocean too, after he returned from his first deployment having taken two bullets to the leg. He had to have 27 operations.
At first, he had worried he wouldn’t be able to surf again, but he was determined to try, so he joined an adaptive surf program at Balboa Hospital. That’s where he met West.
