Dave Pearson

It's only the ocean.

It's fine.

And the water was clear.

There was no issues.

And next thing, Deb runs past, has a surfboard under her arm, paddles past me.

She's going out the back for a surf on her own.

And you go...

She's just showing me that it's all right.

And so I stood there and I got as deep as I possibly could.

I think it was up to my chest because I had to hold my cast above the water.

And yeah, that was my first experience back.

And every time I got out of the surf, someone would pull up on the beach and want to know about what was going on.

And it was then that I realised that everybody in the local community was affected by the

what had happened to me, even if they weren't there, it was still affecting them.

It's great if you can get back in the water with their first go.

A lot of people I've been fortunate to

you know, as soon as I meet them, I say, look, if you want some support when you go back in the ocean, give me a buzz and I'll turn up and we'll go do it together.

And I've done that with a number of people and it's so special.

Number one for a surfer to actually be able to go back in the ocean and have a surf is great because if you've been out for any length of time for whatever injury you've got, it gets frustrating and you miss that mental health treatment that you get from in the ocean.

So