"Everything Wake for Warriors"

After returning home from a tour in Afghanistan, retired U.S. Marine Corps pilot David Deep hit the throttle on a new mission — one that started with buying a boat.

“Getting on the water was my way of getting back into normal life,” Deep recalled. 

For the Huntsville, Alabama native, watersports became more than just a hobby; it was therapy after 28 years of military service. Deep’s journey began at 18 years old when he enrolled in Auburn’s ROTC program.

“ROTC became my fraternity at Auburn,” he said.

By 1988, Deep had earned his degree in aviation management and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. From there, his career soared—logging over 250 combat flight hours during deployments to Somalia, the Persian Gulf and beyond.

“Honored to do it,” he said.

Then came Sept. 11, 2001. Deep was back in action, flying Bell AH-1 Cobra helicopters in Afghanistan. When the dust finally settled, a new calling surfaced for the naval aviator. 

After striking up a friendship with a fellow Marine who was a double amputee, Deep sought to share his passion for the water and wondered if someone without lower limbs could learn to wakeboard. The answer wasn’t just yes; it was life changing.

“It wasn’t about being on the water,” Deep said. “It was about the relationship we built."

That experience led Deep to start Wake for Warriors (WFW), a nonprofit grassroots movement that’s grown into a nationwide lifeline for injured veterans. Since its founding in 2012, the organization hosts more than 50 multi-day events across more than 20 states, serving over 600 veterans each year.

“It’ s basically a gateway to connect veterans with each other,” Deep said.

Deep, who retired from the military in 2016, today serves as a first officer on the Airbus A350 with Delta Air Lines. Between international flights, he coordinates WFW events from his home in Salem, Alabama. He relies on a team of volunteers who lend their boats and their time, offering up their houses and even some delicious southern vittles.

“Breakfast is not a jelly roll or donuts,” Deep joked. “It’s 80-year-old ladies bringing in their custom grits and biscuits that have been blessed.”

Aside from catching waves, WFW retreats break down barriers and build new bonds for those who have sacrificed so much for our country.

“I tell them, ‘Don’ t be afraid to tell your story, because it might help somebody that may be behind you in their journey of healing,’” Deep said.

Enter U.S. Air Force veteran Tyler Densford. The Olive Branch, Mississippi native served in the 155th Air Guard Unit in Memphis. In the summer of 2016, he fell 40 feet from a Blackhawk helicopter during a training mission. The accident paralyzed him from the chest down.  

Months later, Densford arrived at a WFW event carrying more than physical scars. He was searching for hope and healing. Alongside his loyal service dog, Able, he discovered a new community who lifted him higher than any wake ever could.

“My life changed because of the impact that Wake for Warriors had on me,” Densford said. “Now I get to share that experience with other people and help them have a better life.”

WFW has extended beyond combat veterans to include first responders and adaptive sports participants. Recently, the group hosted Auburn’s Wheelchair Basketball team for a challenging day of wakeboarding on nearby Lake Harding.

Thanks to a lineup of generous sponsors, WFW retreats are free for veterans and their families. Visit their website to get plugged into the mission!

Check out our Everything Auburn Podcast Hub here!

Transcript

0:05

Hello and welcome to Everything Auburn, the podcast here at Auburn University, where we get to speak to a new member of the Auburn Family every single month. And I am so excited that you're here with us today. And joining me today is, am I correct? Is that Dalton Odom, a co-host here with me? Wow. Hey, everybody, you're back from Special Assignment. I'm back sick. Thrilled to be back in a minute. Thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me. It's like a homecoming. Honestly, I'm. I'm truly glad you're here. For many reasons, but mostly pressure is off. I'm no longer a solo host right now. Well, great to be back. For those of you don't know, I work for the Alumni Association now, so I get to travel the country. Yeah, work with plenty. Of cool Auburn people. Traveling places like Dallas and Savannah and Memphis and, you know, just making my rounds around the country. Didn't want to have an office next to meeting Auburn people. Yeah, I no longer have an office next to Carter. That's why he cries every day. So y'all send one up for him? Yep. That's right. But speaking of incredible Auburn alums, we have an incredible guest today. Today we have Mr. David Deep David how are you doing? Great. Good. Thanks for having me. Welcome to everything Auburn I hate it. Glad to be here. Yeah. Well, we're glad you're here. You know, this is such a great opportunity for us and as well as and we'll get into it. But what an awesome time to have you in in November. We're here, you know, focusing on Veterans Day and just really, the whole month, obviously. But Veterans Day is coming up and just a really awesome to have you here and be able to shine a light on the work you do. Thank you. Awesome. Yeah. So we'll start out with just, you know, some some basic questions. You know, something along the lines of like, just tell me your Auburn story. Okay. Which is really what this podcast is centered around, you know, talking about Auburn, but tell us how you got to Auburn. What does Auburn mean to you today? What did it mean to you when you were a student? Just tell us a little bit about that, okay? Yeah. Well, I grew up in Huntsville and I was one of seven kids. Apparently, I was the favorite. My mom told me so. So it's gotta be true. And, I, you know, went to high school, graduate high school there, and I was interested in the Marine Corps and wanted to become an officer. And the ROTC program here had a great reputation at Auburn. So I applied for that. In between that I in the summer, right after graduation from high school, I went to, Marine Corps boot camp as a reservist. So for those of you don't know, there's active duty full time and then there's reserved where you can basically do one week and a month. Two weeks a year would be like the standard, thing. So your part time military person. So I did that while I was going to Auburn as well. And you know, I the ROTC here became my fraternity with great times, great people, learned a lot here at Auburn and and just had a great time, great experiences, learn everything. You know. It's so fun. And then, graduated with a degree in aviation management. That same day, I got a commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps, and, became a helicopter pilot for the Marines. Flew CH46’s, which is a kind of a transport. Assault support helicopter and did that for, ten years of active duty. And then I decided to pursue an airline career and left active duty for a while. And then I kind of missed it. The camaraderie of hanging out with fellow Marines and all that. And so I joined a marine Corps Reserve unit flying H-1 w Cobra helicopters. And so I was actually in that school that training on 911. And I knew that, yeah, yeah, I was out in California. So a couple hours behind. Yeah. Buddy of mine calls me up. Hey, turn on the TV. And I look, I'm like, oh, yeah, my world is about to turn upside down. I don't know what. Yeah, sucks about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So couple years later, I find myself in Afghanistan flying, Cobra helicopters, you know, taking care of the people on the ground. Wow. So, yeah, all total. I did about, 28 years of, active and reserve and, retired in 2016. And, that's my kind of Auburn story. Well, before we go anywhere really quick, I just want to say thank you for your service. And thank you for everything that you've done. For our country. Thank you. Really appreciate it. I was honored to do, like. But I had an amazing experience. Met the greatest people you'd ever want to meet. You've had a lot of really interesting time in the Marines. Having come out of the Marines, you started this really wonderful program. You're going on 13 years, and I'm saying the wait four year program. Right. Walk me through when you created that, what that program is and what kind of the service that it provides for, for veterans that are kind of coming out of service. Yeah. So Wake for Warriors is a water sports therapy program for injured, veterans. And it's basically a kind of a gateway, a way of doing something that's fun and easy. But you're also connecting veterans with each other. And the thing is, we're kind of creating a family to where, you know, if you had a family member that needed something, you would do whatever they need, whether they need a job or they need help mentally or physically. We have those kind of resources. It didn't start that way. It started with me like, I had this cool idea. Well, we go all the way back. I was patient number one. Let's let's go all the way back. Let's get into it. Yeah, let's do it. So, you know, if you if you haven't experienced, like, combat or some traumatic experience that had to be combat, it could be, you know, you had cancer or you got in a serious accident. And those traumatic experiences change the way you think about everything. Your priorities are totally different. Your life outlook is different. And so that was kind of the the evidence of how wakeful warriors got started. For me, getting on the water was my way of getting back into like normal life. So I came back from Afghanistan and one of the first things I did was buy a boat, because I, I had previous experience getting on the water was something that was very healing and therapeutic for me. And so it was natural to do that. And eventually I was like, man, I need to share this with people and I was at a marine Corps birthday celebration and I met this, marine double amputee and I was like, hey, man, I got this idea. I want to teach people how to wakeboard. You want to come to my house? And you know, his stories like this random dude walks out and he's like, hey, do you want to come in my house? You know, which is. But but to his credit, you know, he's like, yeah, I'll do you. That's a brave guy, right? The great guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, that was the first week for his event was one guy and neither one of us really knew what we were doing. I didn't know what to teach a guy with no legs. I had a wakeboard and he didn't know how to wakeboard. But between the two of us, we figured it out. And the other part of that was it wasn't about being on the water, it was about the relationship that we sure that we established with each other. And that was in 2012. And he is still on the board, he's still advising, he's still coaching, and he's he's a great wakeboard. Now I know some. Yeah. And it's and he's you know it hasn't slowed him down. And he's been a great resource for me to learn about all the challenges that you have when you have a setback like that. So you've been doing this for about 13 years now from just the random guy you ran into. Yeah. And coerced him in the coming on the lake, right? Yeah. To today. How has it kind of grown over those 13 years? And some of those experiences that you've had? Yeah. Well, first of all, it wasn't peer pressure. No. Yeah. No, it was, it was aggressive motivation. There you go. There you go. That's a very military. Yes. But, yeah. Yeah. It's changed a tremendous amount because, you know, when I first started, it was me going to, you know, Craigslist and buying boards and the, the boat that I could afford, which was an a lot. And, you know, just me out there. But then since then, it's grown into a family of people that it's all volunteer. So people are doing it because they want to do it. And they, they want to live on these people that are coming. And so that's the big change, is that it's way bigger than one person. It started with one person. But in the end I can only do so much. And I rely on awesome people who volunteer their boats, their time, they open up their houses, provide food, they donate all those things that I needed and couldn't provide for, you know, myself. So it's become this big family and we do events across the country. We have about 22 or 23 states that we do these events, and we spend a little over 100 days on the water each year. Oh, man, that's incredible. So it just sort of that one person and actually the second, event was his buddy next door who was also a double amputee. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's a kind of a funny story, because they are the only two people that live on. They both had houses provided by, but, an organization, and they built these two houses right next to each other because they were good friends. And that's on the street where the there's only two houses there do houses and they petitioned the city to change the name of the street to No Leg Lane. So. Right. And the city's like, no, I don't think so. Yeah. But lady chose like, I don't know that quite, you know, in my experience, local governments don't quite have the same sense of humor. Yeah. So but I was like, what a great attitude that these guys have. You know, they just kind of put themselves and, you know, it's not like. And that was the other part of my learning process is like, you know, how do you handle all that? Right. And so the first time I met Tony was the where's the first person that I taught? I was like, oh, you know, how do I tiptoe around this? And what do I do? And it's like, no, I'm not looking at Tony the amputee. It's just Tony, my buddy now. Yeah. And same with, you know, 100 other guys that have these. They've had setbacks in their lives. But now I just look at them as, oh that's my buddy. That's my buddy Tyler. Tell us a little bit kind of about the events that y'all do. And who can participate okay. In these events, do you have to be in the military or formerly? Did you not have to be? That is a great question because it started as, oh, you know, combat only veterans that have been injured. But, you know, as we've expanded and have opportunities to share this with others, we now do other events with first responders and, just folks that have had setbacks and lives. So not military, but we have the opportunity to share this, this fun sport. And we have the equipment, we have the talent and the gear and people and people that want to share this experience with others so that it's kind of evolved into being more open. But your typical event starts on a Thursday. You come in, Thursday evening, have dinner, get set up. The beautiful thing about many of our events is people on that lake open up their houses and like, yeah, stay here for free. Very cool. Yeah, it does to one of many things. But one thing is you've already established a relationship and you're creating a vibe like, hey, come over to my lake house and hang out, right? Which is a great way to get started. Yeah. And the feedback that we've had is like immediately when I walked in, all these like, cool people, like, surrounding me, they're welcoming me. And I feel like, you know, this is super cool and relaxing. It's not like, oh, I'm trying to, you know, do whatever, right? Right. This isn't like an Olympic sport or, you know, it's just like hanging out with with your with your new family. So you get settled, have dinner, go over a little, you know, what's going to happen for the next few days. And they head back the next morning. There's breakfast. And this isn't like your normal like, hey, here's a, you know, jelly roll or whatever. Some donuts. This is like 80 year old ladies bring in their custom grits, know their special gifts and and biscuits that haven't been blessed. You know that kind of like. Yeah, that thing. And you're like, mostly butter. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's the first ingredient and probably the last. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. And so, you know, we have people come in from all over the country, right. These Californians like one of those things, right. Where somebody from, you know, the Midwest or, you know, North or whatever and saw the screen. What are these, what are these the flavor. It's it's it's. Yeah. So yeah, they, you know, they're fun. And then we get out a little safety brief and they ride in the morning till lunch, take a little break and then go right back out and ride until dinner and then dinner. After dinner you're kind of hanging out. They're pretty much worn out. You know, it's a lot of work, especially if you're out in the zone and you're learning for the first time and you're using muscles and you're not used to and, and all that. So you're, you're wearing yourself out for sure, but you're also ecstatic that you could done something new and you've met these people and you're hanging out. And so but the day doesn't the night doesn't, like, go rage. There's no raging parties. Oh, sure, sure. Oh, it's 830. Maybe we should have had. So, But it's on already. But it's great, you know, because you have that, you know, you're hanging out, and that's when all the conversations start talking. You've had a great day. You're relaxed, and then, you know, maybe you're going to tell the story of how, you know, you got to where you were. And it's not in a big group. It's mostly like one on one or, you know, a couple people hanging out, telling their story. And I encourage people to do that. One of the first things I do when I, you know, welcome them and do your brief has like, look around. Yeah, there's a lot of ugly people here, but they have some incredible stories that you should get to know these people and tell your story. Don't be afraid to tell your story either. Because it might help somebody out. You know, they may be behind you in their journey of healing, but you could share your story as an encouragement of, you know, where you were to where you are now. So all those things there's nothing that's program. It just magically happens. We're just creating an environment where you're feeling relaxed and you're loved and you're cared about, and they know that and we're doing something fun. But in the end, you're just putting people together to create these, to build this relationship in these families. And so that's day one. Oh yeah. Then, you know, you're okay. You've kind of learned how to do this thing. You've learned a wakeboard or, and, or wake surf and you don't want it to end. So there's a whole nother day. Beautiful that you're out there and you're challenging each other. Course. You know, it's not like I try to tell people like, you're not going to get to the Olympics on wakeboarding, right? Surfing. I mean, I'm sure they all believe you in there too, right? Yeah. We do. We do actually have competitions, you know, that have competitions that we, we for with our partners. We were able to get these guys and to challenge themselves and each other. But you know of course you also dealing with people that are have that type of a, you know, super intense oh yeah mentality. Right. And I have to tell them, hey man, you got to kind of relax. This is surfing. This isn't like you're not kicking down doors. You're not you're jumping out of airplanes. You're just with learn to not go to the hospital. Yes. So you got to dial it down. Yeah. And a lot of it is just part of the learning process of it is okay. You just got to relax and listen. Don't try to do all your work yourself. Let the boat help you out. Listen to what we're telling you. I was like, hey, man, you your intensity level is like bank robbery. Kind of like you're going to go steal something. I need you to breathe. You need to, like, relax and dial it down to, like, at least steal on a candy bar or something like that. And, you know, you're on a heist and get petty theft. Yes. Yeah. Little smash and grab. Now you're like, don't go crazy, right? So learning, you know, once they learn to relax, then things flow a lot easier. And, so again Thursday. Right. All day Friday, all day Saturday. And Sunday head out. That's our typical. And I know it varies a little bit. And we do some a few variances of that depending on where we are and that we just wrapped up an event in Arizona last this weekend. I wasn't there, but their, the way they do it is come on Thursday. Right. All day Friday and then half day Saturday and then Saturday. All these people that have these, Ford Raptors show up, and it's a family event. So families all hop in these vehicles and they whip out in the desert and get around and cruise, right? Yeah, brother. Yeah. I had a blast. So fun to do some desert surfing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's one of the things that kind of varies. And then we actually have some winter sports as well. Kind of keep playing all year round. Snowboarding. We partner with other organizations that know what they're doing. I could not teach one person that a snowboarder. Well, that we don't have the equipment that they do. So we basically provide them veterans that want to learn and be challenged in that. On the wet snow. Yeah, I think it's probably good that the alabamian isn't teaching people. Yeah, true statements and snowboarding. Yeah. You know, I'm sure you can be good, but I know my limitations. Like trust in the fat chef, right? I believe, you know, I'll take somebody from Colorado to teach me, right? Right. Yeah. And there's another thing. I wanted to make sure we got a chance to talk about. It's adjacent to Wake Forest. But I know you also have a passion for adaptive sports. There's something that happens here at Auburn is, you know, wheelchair basketball, for instance. It's a great thing to do here. I wanted to get a chance to talk about some other things that you're really involved in and passionate about, kind of adjacent to your work for years. Yeah. Jack here. Well, yeah, I mean, again, I kind of comes back to, like, you had a setback in your life. Yeah. And how are you going to deal with it? Right? Are you going to just, like, sit and feel sorry for yourself, or are you going to, you know, like, well, this is my lot in life that's going to be or am I going to go out there and push myself and try to do, you know, things, challenge myself, don't be afraid. Whatever pops up. So, we had an opportunity. We we met, we got connected with the Auburn wheelchair basketball team, and, we had an event on Lake Harding, which is right down the road. And on that Sunday, the whole team shows up, dude. And all I have is names and a list of their, you know, what? What happened to them? Or, you know, they have a lot of bifida or, you know, empty whatever. So I'm trying to, like, figure out where am I gonna put these people on boats. We have like five boats trying to plug them all in, and we don't want them to, like, be delayed and and be like, a long and boring and, you know, like, people struggle. Well, they show up and they're athletes, you know. Yeah. That yeah, they they certainly are. Right. They underestimated them because they went out there and they crushed it. It was so fun to see it well won their enthusiasm. And that team, they already had an amazing amount of camaraderie. Oh sure. And just the banter that was going on and yeah well aggressive motivation right right right right. Yeah. They were having a blast and it was just so fun to be around. And they're young, they're energetic and they're just out there. But we're also they're used to being coached. So it's like, hey man, just do this boom. And they're up and running and they're having a blast. So we had a great day with them and we look forward to do it again. Well this is not a one and done. We've you know we've kind of built a relationship with the now. And like the they had a tournament here yesterday or this past weekend. And a lot of the volunteers, we had 20 or 25 people from Lake Harding that was there on that Sunday when they came. Oh yeah, we want to go watch the basketball game. Oh, awesome. And it was so fun to just like sit in the stands and watch those guys. You tried out a surfer wakeboard out there. Just I mean, it blew me away with the athleticism. Oh yeah. These guys they are so good. Yeah. And we'll be back. Yeah. Highly recommend going to a game. Anybody listening or watching us. Ever been. Yeah. They're so fun to watch. Truly impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Real athletes there. Yes for sure. Yeah. Well speaking about that that Auburn tie you know again like I said earlier obviously with this being the Everything Auburn podcast. Yeah. Brock until I gotta take time off. You're just saying Carter just had a rock on hand. Hanson. You know, but. And with you being an alum, I'm just curious what to you, how does weight for Warriors relate to the the Auburn Creed in any way to you? You know, it's something that Carter and I talk about all the time. And Carter and I will get all gushy talking about the Creed. But yeah, I will leave it to you. You don't need to cry that well, the obvious one. You know, there's talk about, you know, supporting your country and, you know, you love, love your country and all that. That would be too easy. I think the one that talks about being of sound mind and sound body, in a spirit that is not afraid. Yeah, yeah. That I think embodies what we're trying to do. Again, you've had a setback in life, right? And you're going to be afraid to do things. I think everybody is, regardless of what were you, man and all that, you're going to have things that you're going to be scared to do. Do what? Scared? Don't be afraid to challenge yourself. You're just I sometimes I say it's just us girls. You just, you know, you're going to you're around family, right? Yeah. You're around family. And if you fail, we're going to be there. We're not going to like, man, you suck. You. It's going to be like, hey, let's do it. Let's try. You know, you probably not going to get up on the first try. That's fine. You know, let's just keep going and we'll figure out a way to make it happen. So if you're scared, do it. Scared. Come off that. That's been truly incredible. All right, so another thing that, I definitely wanted to touch on. You know, I more than one thing that I think is really cool about this program is that it's free to participate. And so if you don't mind talking about that, talk about sponsorship a little bit. Also, yeah, we are very fortunate to have the best, partnerships and water sports industry, not boats. As our primary, partner, they provide not only a boat for us, but also a network of dealers across the country. So they've introduced is the people that own Nordics or Ham, in addition to the dealerships all over the country. So that is a great network, too. And you know, that we've had that partnership since 2017 and it's not just, oh, it's just the boat company. No, those are people that are my family now. They're my friends. We've been to their weddings. We've, you know, experienced like family type things. We hang out, you know, together. And these different events. So I and that's pretty much the way all of our partners are. It's not just, you know, some corporate person like, oh, we're going to write you a check and we're going to send you whiteboards. It's, you know, I can't, call my friend, hey, a burger wakeboard. Can you help me out? Oh, yeah. No problem. Then they send it. So that's the kind of family support that we have. And we couldn't do it without them. So, the motor that's in the these boats is a GM product. So GM marinas are another partner of ours. And they provide us with a really sweet truck to drag that boat around the country. And Piper lightweight boards, those are a big three folks. And the, you know, the trailer but made trailers, all these folks that I don't want to sound like I'm a NASCAR guy, but hey, you know, hey, it's working. Yeah, but, you know, I, we they don't get a lot of praise necessarily. They're doing it because they want to do it and they want to support us. And I'm super grateful for them because we could not do it without them. And, so that it's it's an awesome, you know, group of folks that have surrounded us to make it happen. And we're super grateful for that. Awesome. Well, as we kind of round out here, I wanted to make sure you got a chance to talk about, who can participate. I think I know the answer to that one, but I just want to make sure we get that, and how to sign up. Where to? Contacting you guys across. You know, the whole country traveled all over the place. What's what's the sign up process? How to get in touch with you to learn more? If there's somebody up there listening who is interested. Yeah, well, first of all, I want to say, if, you know, if you're not a veteran, but, you know, a veteran that could maybe benefit from this, reach out to them. That's the best way you can help us is getting the word out. Because not everybody obviously know a lot of people don't know about work for Warriors. You know, you'll see it on a truck. And, you know, I get asked a hundred times a day like, hey, what's that? And I get those other names, which I'm happy to do because we want to get that word out and let those that can benefit from it to get out there and sign up. So if you do know somebody that you know that can use it, please let them know. Otherwise you can go on or you know, we have social media like for Warriors, we have like four is that org where there is a place where you can sign up if you want to. You don't have to be military. You just have to have a little heart of giving and you can sign up doesn't doesn't know. It doesn't matter if you know how to drive a boat or coach or whatever, if you can make some really big and grits, you know, maybe we can plug in somewhere, right? Perfect. Wonderful. So, yeah. And so there's, there's ways of helping. And if you just, you know, it, it does it does cost money to do these things. And, it is like I said, it is all volunteer and, but we do have to pay for things, you know, boat gas and equipment. Our primary things are food, travel, lodging and special equipment. And insurance unfortunately, is very expensive. They're getting more expensive. So we have to cover ourselves with liability and all that. So all those things cost money and that's where all the money goes to. So. Yeah. Cool. Well, I want to say thank you for what you do and for all the service you provide and all the incredible memories and experiences you've given to all these people and continue to do so, proud that someone's doing that and proud that it's an alum doing it even more. Thank you. And thank you very much. Thanks for spend some time with us. And I think that'll be it for today's episode. And thank you for listening. We're so glad that you were here to spend some time with us, getting to know another member of the Auburn family. We'll be back again next month with another special end of the year holiday. Festivities, a bang. Yeah, a big holiday. Holiday get together. But until then, we got 11 more episodes that we filmed. Or ten other episodes. I'm not good at math. Episodes. We filmed the rest of the year as volume go back the year before and even back then to see some really incredible people. We've been able to have, some awesome conversations with. Absolutely. But until then, we'll see you next time. And War Eagle! War Eagle! War Eagle!