An amazing and inspirational piece on 14-year old San Diego surfer Patrick Ivison who recently hooked up with Jesse Billauer and the Life Rolls On Foundation to rip George’s in Cardiff By The Sea, California. See the video below…
As reported on allday.msnbc.msn.com
QUADRIPLEGIC TEEN GIVES JENNA WOLFE A LESSON IN SURFING…AND COURAGE
I went surfing with Patrick Ivison recently. Actually, he surfed… I just flailed around like a wild chicken barely balancing on a board. Patrick got a rush. I got a gallon of water in my mouth. Patrick wanted to spend the rest of the day in the water. I wanted to get out. So I grabbed my board and walked towards the beach. Patrick couldn’t follow me.
Patrick has grown up in a wheelchair and knows no other way to live. Each new goal of his requires far more willpower and manpower than it would for the rest of us. And he’s done a lot COMPARED to the rest of us — waterskiing, rugby, soccer, basketball…he’s done it all. So he was determined to find a way to master surfing.
For years, he surfed the waves off the San Diego coast in his mind, envisioning the rush, the pull, the freedom of riding a board through the water. To hear him talk about it is to want to do anything in your power to make it happen. And then six years ago, Patrick finally found a way. He met Jesse Billauer, a well-known surfer who also suffered a spinal chord injury. Billauer had started a program called Life Rolls On, an organization which helps disabled people surf.
