In October of 2010, Tommy Counihan was deployed to Afghanistan. Part of his job there was to ensure that the roads other troops traveled were clear of improvised explosive devices. After nearly a year there, in May of 2011, Counihan’s vehicle drove over a pressure plate. “Instant boom and shock,” he remembered. “It’s like the movies. Everything was slow motion. It was honestly like that.”
The explosion was devasting. The vehicle was destroyed, and Counihan’s foot was demolished. Doctors thought that they could possibly save his leg, but as he says, “they knew that it probably wasn’t the best idea.”
The decision was made to amputate, and Tommy’s life changed forever. “It was unreal to me,” he says about the moment they unwrapped his freshly-amputated lower leg. “It was like looking at a movie prop. I hadn’t even accepted it at this point—this is forever now.”
Understandably, Counihan struggled with his new normal. “In my mind, I had this vision of what normal was,” he said. “I started to think, ‘no matter how hard I try, I’m never going to be normal again. I’m never going to be me again.'”
He sank into a deep depression and thought seriously about suicide. That’s when something great happened: Tommy was literally dragged into the water to go surfing again, and the moment he dropped into his first wave, his life began to get back on track.
Now, he runs an organization that “that focuses on using surfing and other extreme sports to help recreate the military experience and lift up the health and wellness of other vets.”
Recently, he met with Laird Hamilton and a few veteran surfers in Hawaii. “I have that sense back that I’ve got purpose and fulfillment again,” he said. “I’ve learned that my purpose has changed to helping others; to giving back.”
