BIG LAKE — A tight-knit group of veterans gathered at Big Lake on Saturday to go wake surfing and wakeboarding as part of the organization Wake for Warriors.
Before hitting Big Lake on Saturday, the veterans took to Lake Tye in Monroe to compete in the adaptive division of the WWA Wake Surf and Wakeboard National Championships.
Dave Deep started Wake for Warriors in 2012 in Alabama when he recognized the healing potential of being out on the water with his fellow veterans.
The organization utilizes boat-towed water sports and adaptive equipment so that veterans, especially disabled veterans, can do something fun together and find community through their shared experiences.
“It was peaceful, (the participants) got to chat, they got to get to know one another and they did all that by learning to wake surf,” Wake for Warriors Pacific Northwest Regional Leader Alyssa Phillips said.
The organization has been active for six years in the Pacific Northwest, holding events in a number of states.
“It’s spread pretty rapidly … the mission is (to get) people together to heal the mental and physical wounds that have occurred for them and to bring them together on the water as a community and create that camaraderie again,” Phillips said.
On Saturday, after the veterans were done on the water, they went to Kris and Doug VanderSanden’s house for a cookout.
“There’s no pity party here,” Kris VanderSanden.
VanderSanden said Wake for Warriors helps veterans make the most of their lives by giving them opportunities to do things they usually couldn’t do.
“A lot of the veterans here are very selfless, they just tend to be cheering each other on,” said Matt Hannon, one of the participating veterans.
Hannon added that Wake for Warriors and other community-centered opportunities for veterans are important for improving mental health and healing trauma.
Many of the participating veterans are disabled, and find that being able to do something as exciting as wakeboarding is liberating.
And that doing it with other veterans, especially disabled veterans, is inspiring.
This year, Hannon invited Todd VanderHoogt when VanderHoogt was working for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Seattle.
“We could (wake surf) all day long. This is the first time I’ve done it in 20 years in a chair,” VanderHoogt said, who now works for RGK, a wheelchair manufacturing company.
“No matter what you do, the world has come up with a way to adapt a wheelchair to anything … but this is just way more enjoyable,” VanderHoogt said.
Saturday was veteran Ricardo Renteria’s first time using a helmet while he was wakeboarding, which he said gave him the confidence to execute some tricks that he had been attempting all year.
One of Renteria’s fellow veterans had a stroke, which left his left side paralyzed and made it difficult for him to walk.
“By being in the water, he’s able to move around, to be free, and that gives him the ability to open up … When we get together like this, we talk and express ourselves, then we get out to the lake and we’re all equal,” Renteria said.
