CANNON BEACH — Monique Kelley never expected to become a surfer. The Brookings native grew up watching from the sand as others caught waves. The murky, cold water made her uneasy.

Then something happened that changed her definition of fear forever.

She woke up pinned to the ground, trapped in her SUV after it slid, hit a tree and flipped on black ice in 2017. Her then 5-year-old son miraculously escaped the vehicle uninjured. He saved Kelley’s life by waving down help.

The accident broke her ribs, punctured a lung and caused a burst fracture. Rescuers were able to free Kelley from the wreckage, but the accident left her paralyzed from the waist down.

Determined to get the best recovery care possible so she could eventually independently raise her son, Kelley moved to Portland. She was fueled, in part, by grief from another tragedy. Her accident happened just three weeks after her brother was killed in a road rage crash on Interstate 5 in Medford.

“I think that after what I’ve experienced I would have every excuse to wallow in self-pity, but I told myself from the get-go that the sun rises and sets without me each day,” Kelley said. “So it’s up to me to make the most of it. What good would it do me or anybody else if I choose to wallow with that?”

An unlikely friendship

While Kelley relearned how to function, Gabe Smith, the managing partner of Bahama Boards Cannon Beach, experienced a life-changing transformation of his own.

The volunteer firefighter worked at the surf shop in 2019 when it teamed up with the Haystack Rock Awareness Program’s beach wheelchair accessibility initiative.

People interested in renting one of the beach adaptive, fat tire wheelchairs would call the shop, and Smith would help transfer them into the chair and push it through the sand.

“For two years I was listening to people say, ‘This is the last time I’m going to have my grandfather or dad on the beach,’” Smith said. “I was helping this 95-year-old guy one day. Later on, while working with the fire department, I went on a call for a guy who passed away. It was the same guy I had taken out on the beach. His family wasn’t kidding, this was his last time seeing it.”

After helping countless families, Smith felt an unstoppable pull to increase access to the beach.

“It’s affected me enough to understand how it affects everyone around them,” Smith said. “I’ve been motivated personally. I don’t have a physical problem. I’ve got nothing to complain about in life so I can’t compare the difficulty of what people have to go through.”

When Bahama Boards obtained a surfboard specially crafted for people with mobility issues, he recruited as many people as possible to take free adaptive surf lessons. When he came across Kelley’s story on social media, he reached out.

“He just really sold me on this idea that we could make a positive impact in the disabled community and the community of Oregon as a whole,” Kelley said.

She agreed to give surfing a try, launching a friendship that’s created a ripple effect through the Bahama Boards adaptive surfing program.

A new purpose

An adaptive surfboard is wider than a typical board, adding stability and making it possible for surfers like Kelley to ride waves while on their stomachs. From that position, the surfer can paddle through the water to catch a wave.

“It’s very therapeutic,” said Kelley, who started surfing in May. “I surprise myself every time I come out here. It was really challenging in the beginning, but each time I come out here it becomes more natural to me.”

A team of volunteers makes Kelley’s training and the adaptive surf lessons possible. They’ll hoist Kelley onto the board, carry her out into the water and spread out so they’re able to intercept if there’s a problem.

Kelley is now training to make it to the Paralympics. Earlier this month, she received a sponsorship that will award her with new adaptive surfing equipment.

“I wasn’t an athlete before. I grew up riding dirt bikes and skateboarding and stuff but never considered myself an athlete,” she said. “I never in a million years would have seen myself even playing a sport at all. Surfing, especially not. It’s been one of the most amazing, exciting journeys in my life.”

The accessibility challenges

While the Bahama Board’s adaptive surfing program has grown to six students, the team involved in making it happen has realized just how little access there is to the beach for people living with mobility issues.

There are no wheelchair ramps that lead directly to the water on North Coast beaches. When Kelley comes to Indian Beach for a surfing session, a team of five people takes turns carrying her wheelchair down the steep and primitive path to the water.

“It’s labor-intensive, all of these people have to work,” Kelley said. “I have to get carried or I have to get pushed super far in these beach chairs that are provided by Cannon Beach. If we had a power chair, or an Action Trackchair, it would go a long way.”

“This is definitely not just about surfing, it’s about beach access,” Smith added.

According to the Oregon Office on Disability and Health, 12% of the state’s population has a mobility disability.

A survey conducted by the office reported that while 79% of adults in the state engage in some type of exercise or physical activity outside of work, only 65% of disabled adults reported they had exercised or engaged in physical activity in the past month.

Smith and Kelley believe there is much more local and state governments can do to give people living with a mobility disability options. While they train for the Paralympics together, the pair is working to spread awareness about the obstacles that exist.

At this time, Manzanita, Cannon Beach and Seaside have rentable beach wheelchairs. The pair hopes to get more adaptive equipment like an Action Trackchair and tools for other recreational activities on the coast. They hope one day a ramp will be built that would allow people living with a disability to get to the water on their own.

“These are not inventions we are trying to make up. These currently exist in other places,” Smith said. “They don’t have them here. We have some really ideal places we could get them.”