Two Westcountry surfers injured during military service will compete for Team GB in the US this weekend at the ISA World Adaptive Surfing Championship.

Martin Pollock, from Mullion, Cornwall, and Chris Jones, from Ivybridge near Plymouth, have arrived in San Diego ahead of the event’s opening ceremony tomorrow.

Competition will take place from Saturday to Monday, with 18 countries taking part.

Both athletes have been supported in their recovery journeys through Operation Surf, a Help for Heroes-supported programme that links with US organisation Amazing Surf Adventures.

Martin said: “I count my first time surfing as when I got on a board during my first trip with Op Surf to California in 2012. I had tried 18 months previously but the instructors at the surf school I chose while on holiday just pushed me along. They didn’t teach me how to do it myself.

“During my first lesson with Op Surf we went through some basic moves on dry land but I’d missed most of it as I’d had a problem with my prosthetic so had to get that sorted out. So essentially I just got in the water on my board and I’ve never looked back. It’s hard to describe what I felt; I don’t think I realised the impact until later, how much it grabbed me. When I’m surfing I’m happy; it’s peaceful, it’s fun.”

Martin, aged 33, joined the Army in 2008. A year later he deployed to Afghanistan where he suffered a bullet wound to the leg, but after rehab soon returned to the front line. Shortly afterwards, in early 2010, he was caught up in an explosion in which he lost both legs and his left arm.

He spent much of the following five years between Headley Court Rehabilitation Centre in Surrey and running his fish and chip shop, The Galleon, in his home town in Cornwall with the support of family. It was during this period that he was introduced to the team who run the UK side of Operation Surf, a Help for Heroes-supported programme that links with US organisation Amazing Surf Adventures to provide rehabilitation opportunities through surfing.

Martin, who recently took part in the first UK-based Op Surf event, added: “Continuing to attend Op Surf was more about helping the other guys out than it was about developing my own skills. I figured if I’m there with one limb showing that I can do it then they’ll believe they can do it too.”

Having turned down an offer to take part in the inaugural World Adaptive Surfing Championship last year, it was only after competing in two charity competitions earlier this year that Martin reconsidered. While Surfing GB selected their team through applications this year, other countries have held national championships as selection events; something the UK will be looking to do in the future.

Martin said: “I thought about entering a little bit and initially I thought that it’s not so much that I want to be a world champion, but I want to inspire and motivate people and this would be an effective way of doing that. But now that I’m actually competing, I’m not just going to take part, I’m going to win.

“The way I see it is I’m coming up to seven years old - in surfing terms, I’m a grom. A lot of the guys have been competing in adaptive surfing since birth. I’m going in as a rookie so there’s no real pressure on me to do well. I want to do well, but if I think of it that way there is no pressure.

“Learning to surf made me realise what I was capable of doing. Op Surf showed me what was possible. They showed me that there is no such thing as disability. Disability means there’s something switched off, that doesn’t work. ‘Differently able’ is my term.

“Without Op Surf I’d probably be 20kg heavier sat on a sofa pretty miserable. It’s not worth thinking about, it wouldn’t be a good place.

“If I come back from this championship and learn that I’ve encouraged someone to take up surfing, or any sport, it would make me feel like I’m doing the right thing on the path to helping people. It’s not an ego boost, I’m just doing what I like to do.”

Fellow teammate Chris Jones, 43, was discharged from the Army Air Corps aged 25, barely able to walk. He suffered several injuries to both legs which means he frequently uses a wheelchair, and has also been diagnosed with fibromyalgia leaving him in constant pain. Although now at relative peace with his injuries, Chris’ mental health continues to suffer, dealing with feelings of inadequacy, guilt and anger since being injured, for which he has received support from Help for Heroes’ Psychological Wellbeing team.

Since his first contact with Help for Heroes’ Plymouth Recovery Centre in early 2015, Chris has taken part in a wealth of activities with the Sports Recovery team, including hand-cycling and gig rowing. While he has enjoyed himself, even being selected to take part in this year’s Invictus Games in Orlando, and his mental health has benefitted greatly, the more he did the more he realised that no other sport measured up to his love of surfing.

“I started surfing in a surf kayak 17 years ago,” explained Chris. “I wanted to keep active after my injuries but had to find something I could do sitting down. There was nothing else like it, but I had to give it up three years ago as my condition got worse. The fibromyalgia shut my brain down one day when I was out by myself paddling and I had to be rescued. I nearly died. I was told I shouldn’t do it anymore but I carried on. I eventually stopped when I saw the worry I was causing my wife knowing how dangerous it was with my physical difficulties."

Chris will compete in the championship in a class alongside those on wave-skis; a type of surfboard with a seat on top.

“I’m excited about the championship. It will be the first time I’ve ever surfed with my peers. To surf in a formal competition legitimises 17 years of negativity from stand up surfers who don’t think I surf because I’m sitting down. There’s a perception that paddling a kayak in surf is easy and it’s not, particularly at the level I do it at.

Jonpaul Nevin, Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach for Help for Heroes, who has supported both competitors, commented: “Having run the UK side of the H4H supported Operation Surf programme since 2011, I have seen first-hand how being in the ocean can enrich the lives of wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans.

“To see the difference which surfing has made to the long term recovery of both Martin and Chris is truly awesome. Indeed, as Martin eloquently puts it ‘surfing hasn’t just changed my life, it has become my life’. I am super stoked to see both of them being selected for the GB squad for the 2016 ISA World Adaptive Surfing Championship. I am sure they will smash it and enjoy everything which California has to offer.”

Completing Team GB in the World Adaptive Surfing Championship is another Cornishman, Peg Bennett from St Agnes, and Welshman Spike Kane.

Team GB can be seen in action on a live stream via www.isaworlds.com during competition from 9-11 December.

If you are wounded, injured or sick military personnel or veteran and would like to find out more about Help for Heroes or get involved, visit www.helpforheroes.org.uk/get-support.