Over the past two years, the California Surf Museum in Oceanside has been collecting the stories of vets who surfed in Vietnam and those who continue to use surfing as a release. "That took my mind off the war zone instantly." "I took the personal challenge to see how large of a wave I could ride." he said. Lischer said he used the massive Hawaiian waves to wash away the stress of living in a combat zone. "That was right downtown, a block from the beach at Waikiki." "We all went under a car … instantly went for cover," Lischer said. They were walking to the beach when a car backfired. But just after his tour of duty there, he hit the beach in Hawaii, along with two friends who also had just gotten off the plane from Vietnam. A retired lifeguard and lifelong surfer, Lischer does not recall even seeing the ocean when he served in Vietnam. They were hungry for any taste of life back home. Many of them were Californians drafted into the conflict. Often, they were isolated surfers who found boards or built their own out of spare parts. Troops actually surfed all along Vietnam’s coast. You can survive it, but that's all you can do," he said. He said he does not talk often about his time in Vietnam. ![]() He would not surf again until he got back to California. Lux was at the beach for less than three hours before his unit was sent back to the jungle. "I had a few buddies that were from the Midwest, and they wanted me to help them try to surf it. "I know I got to stand up and ride two, three waves," Lux said. Credit California Surf Museum Troops hang out at the China Beach snack bar, an R&R station near a military hospital in Da Nang, Vietnam.
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