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Hanging Ten with Legendary Surf Dog Ricochet By Beth Fhaner
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he award-winning surf dog Ricochet is well known around Southern California and beyond—she was one of the original San Diego surf dogs, a founding member of the dog surfing circuit, earning several accolades along the way and even appearing in the 2019 SuperPower Dogs IMAX movie. Although Ricochet no longer surfs competitively, the beloved golden retriever continues to catch waves and share good vibes as a surfing therapy dog. For more than a decade now, Ricochet has helped to heal and transform the lives of countless wounded
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warriors and veterans with PTSD, children with special needs, and many other people with disabilities. As a canine ambassador for adaptive surfers, the registered and certified goal-directed therapy dog continues to inspire through her powerful healing work. We recently caught up with Judy Fridono, Ricochet’s owner, to find out what this champion surf dog has been up to lately. Has Ricochet been able to continue working as a therapy dog during the global pandemic?
For the first two months of the shutdown, we stayed
home as directed. At that point, we created a stress-reducing page on her website. At the same time, we started providing Zoom visits for doctors, nurses, first responders, other essential workers, and the families of those who lost a loved one to the virus. From there, we created Zoom visits for kids. After two months, we started outdoor “house visits” because Ricochet needed physical contact with people and vice versa. Then we also incorporated distance-learning. Can you tell us about the Waves of Empowerment
WEBSITE: surfdogricochet.com/virtualcaninetherapy.html
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program that brings veterans together with children who have special needs?
Waves of Empowerment brings together veterans with kids who have special needs. The veteran is a mentor for a day and the kids get their own hero for a day. They are matched one-on-one for the activities of the day. The veteran benefits because they are often lost after coming home and retiring from the service after they’ve been serving their country for years. This gives them the opportunity to be of service again. Both veterans with PTSD and kids with
FaceTime: surfdogricochet.com/healingviafacetime.html
