Reality Rally

Steve Jobs said “ The ones who think they are crazy enough to change the world are the ones who do”

Read on how 2 crazy guys with a crazy passion and a crazy idea and many more crazy friends, now change the world of so many who have returned combat wounded in one way or another with this crazy idea. “RECOVER through adventure, DISCOVER our underwater world and REBUILD families and relationships.” They started WAVES which stands for Wounded American Veterans Experience Scuba and so much more to so many one wave at a time. www.wavesproject.org

Get your Kleenex ready and read on……

News coverage of WAVES

The WAVES Project, Inc. a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, utilizes the platform of scuba diving and the therapeutic values of water, to help veterans with service related injuries and disabilities rehabilitate. WAVES provides this training for the veterans and a buddy of their choosing, at no cost.

WAVES works with able bodied veterans that are suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), as well as individuals with physical challenges like amputations, paraplegia and quadriplegia.The unique properties of this aquatic environment enhances interventions that are ideal for combat wounded veterans as they rehabilitate from various injuries received in combat such as amputations, spinal cord injuries, PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injuries, along with a host of other injuries received in battle. Scuba diving takes the advantages of the properties of water, including weightless and limited audio input, allowing Combat wounded veteran’s to exercise in a therapeutic environment. Underwater, there is the soothing sound of breathing through your regulators as your bubbles float effortlessly to the surface. Movements are slower, gravity is sapped of it strength and muscles move more freely. The disabled diver underwater is now an equal to his or her able body dive buddy!

The Instructional staffs are trained PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) professionals, as well as trained in HSA (Handicapped Scuba Association). The goal is to train our veterans to become PADI Open Water Divers. If, because of physical or mental challenges, they are not able to complete all standards for PADI, WAVES staff can fall back on HSA to certify them, based on their limitations.

Research has been proven that scuba diving has the potential to reduce symptoms of PTSD by 80 to 100%. It has also shown success in providing new feelings in extremities of paraplegics that haven’t been felt since their trauma.

New research is being developed by The WAVES Project, partnered with Stanbridge College, to continue researching the benefits of scuba diving on our veterans and their families. Read the blogs on their website to hear their stories from those that have been waved into an underwater world to help them in so many ways.

The WAVES Project strives to help our veterans “RECOVER through adventure, DISCOVER our underwater world and REBUILD families and relationships.”

Explore the WAVES website and I guarantee you will touched and inspired by what they do. Think about how YOU could change your world with what you are capable of.www.wavesproject.org

“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” —Nelson Mandela

Meet the crazy people with this crazy idea that works because they said it would.!!!

I met Steve and Ron when my husband and I signed up for their scuba certification class about 12 years ago. Little did I know then that knowing them would make such an impact on my life by seeing what they are doing. They have also been a big part of Reality Rally every year in many ways including a team this year.

Today they are featured in the Reality Rally Charity Spotlight. Our light is shining on who they are. Thank you WAVES, you inspire me.