In the new book “Ricochet: Riding a Wave of Hope With the Dog Who Inspires Millions” (Health Communications, Inc., $18.95), Judy Fridono tells of how her dog Ricochet failed out of traditional service-dog training only to reveal a hidden talent for another kind of service: surfing with children with special needs.
Here, in an excerpt from the book, Fridono reveals the first time Ricochet hopped on a surfboard with Patrick Ivison, a quadriplegic teenager who surfed on his own with the help of a team of humans.
Fridono had planned to make a video of Ricochet and Patrick surfing side-by-side, each on their own boards, to help raise money for Patrick’s treatment, but Ricochet had another idea.
Right there, as clear as day, Ricochet was telling me she wanted to surf tandem with Patrick. It was something I never would have thought of on my own, but I was willing to try if the others were game.
“Patrick, she wants to surf with you,” I said, not knowing where the words came from. How could I let a dog stand on a board with a boy who was quadriplegic?
“That’d be cool!” Patrick grinned. It seemed everyone was willing to give this idea of Ricochet’s a shot. It wasn’t clear to me what I was feeling: Amazement? Shock? Trust? Maybe for the first time since Ricochet had come into my life, I was listening to what she had been trying to tell me all those long months when she’d resisted my training.
Ricochet had never done anything remotely like this before. And here was a boy with a disability and I was asking him and his mother and their assembled team to put their trust in a dog. He could flip over. Ricochet could unbalance him and he could drown out there. It was all so new. I had no idea how to position Ricochet on the board. She had no idea how to position herself with someone else on the board . . . or so I thought.
“All I can do is trust Ricochet to know what she’s doing,” I told them all.
As people hovered around us, I thought, “This is the dog who has let me down time and time again.” Now I was trusting her completely.
“Can you trust my dog?” I asked 14-year-old Patrick.
“Sure! Let’s do it!” he answered without hesitation.
At that moment, I knew everyone there had to trust Ricochet.
Patrick’s team lifted Patrick onto the board first. Then, we let Ricochet hop on the board, and she positioned herself. She was unable to stand on the board the way she normally did when she surfed solo, with all four of her legs placed squarely on the surface. Patrick’s outstretched legs took up the space, so she had to stand sideways, her legs between his, with one leg curled and with her paw resting over his back. I was apprehensive, but I simply had to believe that she would figure out by herself how to surf tandem with Patrick on one board. And she did.
Overriding my nervousness, I could feel the amazement of all of the people helping, together with the newscasters, at what was about to happen. I think more than a few people were holding their breath, afraid to believe that what we were attempting was possible, but ardently hoping it was. The team pushed Ricochet and Patrick out on the board together, turned them around through the rocking motion of the waves, and then in one incredible moment, Ricochet and Patrick were surfing together on the same board, riding a wave of hope that changed their lives forever.
Thanks to Ricochet ’s fundraising, Patrick was able to get physical therapy at an innovative rehabilitation center for spinal cord injuries. In 2012, he walked across the stage at his high school graduation.