Todd's
Interview with a nursing journal on surfing nurses
I am going to start answering
the questions now. Aren't you glad I have no life:-)? Are you ready????
1] What's your specialty
in nursing?
I have worked in the psychiatric
field for close to 25 years. The last ten as a nurse. Most of my work has
been with adolescents. For the last 5 years I have been working with physically
and sexually abused children.
2] What is your age?
.......49, soon to be half
a century. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!
3] Where do you work?
.......East Providence,
RI
4]What inspired you to
become a nurse?
I have always liked working
with people in need, Becoming a nurse has allowed me to continue to help
others and still support myself decently.
5] What do you love about
your profession?
I am fortunate enough to
be really able to help people in true need of psychological assistance.
With children, I am glad they have found in me a nurturing, caring, empathic
human being.
6] What is challenging
about it?
Dealing with managment who
are stupid. Dealing with managers who are unethical and cant do the work
1/100 as
well as I can, yet they
are my bosses. It is unreal to me. As far as actually seeing some of the
horrible things people have done to children, the challenge is to give
good care and help them feel safe. The personal challenge is to try to
detach some. I often have bad deams about what I have seen and dealt with.
I often cannot get the visions out of my head. I recently admitted a kid
that had a broken nose and cheek bone, swollen eyes and face, 3 broken
ribs and many old an new bruises. I had to go out of the room when I first
saw him to cry a bit.
7] What type of surfing
do you do?
....stand up. Body surfing
and body boarding to me shouldnt be called surfing. Standing up on a board
is surfing. All the others I am sure are fun but it isnt surfing.
8] How long have you been
surfing?
Since I can't surf in the
winter anymore, I say only a couple of years.
9] Where do you surf and
what are your favorite spots?
I surf mostly RI and Mass.
Not sure I have a favorite spot but I think I like the Ocean Mist reef
in RI. Very loooooooooong lefts to be had when its working:-) Right
JohnW?
10] Have you surfed any
contests?
I have tried but they always
kick me out:-) Not really, just messin' with ya'
11] What's your level
of surfing?
Before getting my bells
palsy in would of said moderate beginner. I could catch most waves in the
chest high and below range. Now, with so much less water time, I would
not say absolute beginner but it is harder for me to catch waves. I can
still pop up to my feet and know how to deal with the ocean and predict
swells, so I am far from a
beginner in that sense.
12] What inspired you
to surf?
I started surfing to spend
some cool time with my then 13 yo nephew. I contined to learn to show him
by example
how to push yourself and
persevere.
13] What does surfing
do for you? Especially after a tough night at work?
The main thing I love about
surfing is how it helps you forget all your troubles. I love the solitude
of it. The peace and beauty of the ocean and it's many moods. I always
appreciate my natural suroundings after a surf session. I sing on the way
home in the car after surfing. Surfing makes me feel happy. Nothing else
is quite the same. Thats why it has
sucked not being able to
surf in the winter anymore because of my hells bells. I LOVED surfing in
the winter.
I guess here I will talk
about the bells to give some perspective. Medically they say there is no
known cause for bells palsy. There are correlations. From lymes disease
etc. I believe i got it surfing in 38 degree water. Waves were wasit to
chest and very clean that day. Caught tons of waves. One particular time
I wiped out and my head went under. I felt a JOLT of pain going through
the leftside of my neck and face. The next morning, half of my face didnt
work, which is what bells palsy is. Problem is, it didnt work at
all for more than 4 months!!!!!! Even now close to two years later, I am
at around 85% healed. I can close my bad eye, but it still doesnt blink
on its own. Therefore I need to use eye drops about every two hours while
i am awake.
It is because of this I no
longer feel comfortable surfing in any water anywhere near to that. That
sucks because it gives me MUCH less water time and when the water does
get warmer...around 50 or so.....is when we have the least amount of waves:-(
It also sucks because surfing in the dead of winter was great. It made
me feel core. Like the term surfer should apply to me. i dont feel that
anymore and that really saddens me.
14] How does the lifestyle
of surfing compare to the lifestyle of nursing?
Nursing is stressful, especially
psychiatric nursing. Surfing helps neutralize and get rid of stress. Not
only by pushing your body but getting you to open your eyes to the beauty
of the natural world. I will give you a great example of this. One past
winters day, I was surfing on Cape Cod with my nephew. There are these
HUGE sand dunes there. It is
just he and i out and it
is snowing:-) Waves were mosty waist high and clean. The swell was consistent
and steady. We were bobbing up and own in the rythym of the swell. A huge
freaking seal decides to join us too:-) The whole thing was just so unbelievably
beautiful. I literally felt like we were actually a part of the scenery.
It was pure peace and
contentment for me.
15] Do you see any parralells
between nursing and surfing?
Yes. I am a big believer
that people have rythyms to them selves. As a health care provider, I often
try to tune in to the rythyms of my patients. It helps me to connect to
them theraputically.
Surfing is similiar in that
the ocean often has a rythym as well. Swells come in many shapes and sizes
as well as rip currents and channels. They all need to be carefully viewed
to help you to figure out what is happening in the ocean.
16] What advice do you
have for others either trying out surfing or nursing?
Perserverence is the key
for both. Nursing school was the hardset thing I have ever done. I just
absolutly refused not to make it. I was the same way about learning to
surf. Thats why it sucks for me barely being able to get up on the board
now a days. I have lost a lot of my spark where surfing is concerned. I
am going on a vacation with my nephew in late April on the outer banks
of North Carolina. The water will still be too cold for me here. I am hoping
to push myself hard down there and start catching waves again. To get my
surfing legs back, sort of speak. I guess thats it.
How did I do????????..thanks.....todd.
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 22:43:44
-0500 (EST)
From: todd <MZCMN@webtv.net>
Newsgroups: alt.surfing
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