When Jose Martinez stepped on an explosive while serving in Afghanistan, his life changed forever. So brutally injured was he that doctors were pessimistic about his chances of survival.
It therefore seemed almost a miracle when he did awake from a 10-day coma following the incident. However, he would spend the next two years in the hospital, traumatised that he would never walk again.
The soldier was understandably shaken by the tragic turn his life had taken.
“After jumping out of my coma I was told the wheelchair was going to be my new set of legs! I cried for about a year thinking about it!
“I was told I wouldn’t be able to do a lot of things I used to do, and would be limited to things I can do now. I told myself I would never let anyone tell me what’s possible and what’s impossible,” says Martinez.
But fast forward to the present day and Martinez, the soldier who lost three of his four limbs, is now contentedly riding rough waves on his surfboard.
Martinez also surfs competitively in adaptive surfing competitions and has come out on top in Stoke for Life’s US Open of Adaptive Surfing. He is now dead set on having the USA Adaptive Surfing Team represent his country in the 2028 Paralympics.
One might notice, however, that on Martinez’s surfboard, a furry friend is tagging along for the bumpy ride on the waves.
Ricochet the dog is a champion surfer and in 2009, she became the first ever canine-assisted surf therapy and adaptive surfing dog when she jumped on the surfboard of a teenage adaptive surfer.
Since then, her services and friendship have assisted hundreds of special needs children, disabled persons and wounded veterans.
She is also a certified goal-directed therapy dog that has provided healing to service members and veterans with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a service she has been happily rendering for the past eight years.
She is a soulful pooch, connecting with her humans very quickly and taking charge of their well-being as well as being on alert for anxiety, pain, emotions and other triggers.
One human who has a particular fondness for her is Persons B Griffith IV, also known as Griff, whose service in Afghanistan left him with PTSD.
None of the therapies meant to treat him worked until he met Ricochet through a canine therapy dog programme.
“Ricochet is like a mirror for me, it’s like she reaches in with both her paws, grabs what’s really going on inside of me, pulls it out, and then forces me to deal with it,” says Griff.
“The last time I worked with her, she alerted me to a mall security guard by leading me away from the area he was in. She took it a step further by guiding me behind a bench, where we were able to ‘take cover’ like I did when we took fire on the battlefield.”
Afterwards, Griff sat on a bench and calmed down through eye contact with Ricochet and by petting her.
He also participates in her canine-assisted surf therapy, during which he continues his healing with her and helps others to understand the healing power of dogs.
Ricochet’s guardian, Judy Fridono believes all dogs have these healing powers.
Unfortunately, humans usually misinterpret their cues as bad behaviour. In doing so, the magic every dog is capable of is missed.
Her wish is that others will gain a better understanding of the sentience of dogs, and how they are always communicating with humans. People just have to learn how to listen.