Richard Altamirano is carried by volunteers while learning to surf in Huntington Beach, on Saturday, September 9, 2017. (Photo by Nick Agro, Orange County Register/SCNG)
By LAYLAN CONNELLY | [email protected] | Orange County Register
It didn’t matter that Otis Hopson is legally blind, the result of an injury sustained serving in the Vietnam war decades ago.
And so what if he is turning 71 in a few months? Or that the Mississippi native had never been in the ocean.
On Saturday, he became a surfer.
“The young people say, ‘This is awesome,’” said Hopson, still dripping wet and all smiles after riding some waves – and suffering some wipe outs – in Huntington Beach on Saturday morning, Sept. 9. “Totally awesome.”
Hopson was one of about 40 veterans who were treated to a day of surfing at the “Waves of Valor” event put on by the nonprofit Team Red, White and Blue, which helps veterans get together for social and physical activities to help enrich their lives.
Organizer Chris Merkle, of Huntington Beach, started the event about five years ago with only about four veterans and a handful of volunteers. This year, they had to cap the volunteers at 200, with people from the lifeguard and fire departments, local surfers and the general community coming out to help.
Merkle, a former Marine, was stationed at Camp Pendleton and learned to surf at San Onofre before he got out of the military in 2000.
He was a reservist when the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks happened, and he was dispatched to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he suffered a back injury that affected his equilibrium.