Service, the break, and the long way back.
- The start
Africa to Kansas.
Born in southern Africa, raised between Lesotho, Cairo, Edinboro, and Overland Park. Enlisted out of high school in 1998 to become a SEAL.
- 2001 – 2003
SEAL Team 3.
The opening invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
- 2003 – 2014
A decade at the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU).
The highest-tempo years of his career.
- The break
Two helicopter crashes, years of blast exposure, and a traumatic brain injury.
Recovery ran through the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, the TBI clinic at Bethesda, where art therapy first put a paintbrush in his hands. That idea became the artwork on every One More Wave board.
- 2015
Founded One More Wave.
Custom, adaptive surfboards for wounded veterans, and the community that turned out to matter even more than the boards.
- 2018
Retired from the Navy.
Twenty years. Fifteen combat deployments. Then a different kind of mission.
- After
An M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine.
Training to do the work from the other side of the room, as a counselor.
- Now
Nashville.
A generalist counseling practice with a special interest in trauma: veterans, first responders, and anyone carrying the weight of what they've lived through. An advocate for expanding how this country treats these wounds, including Tennessee's HOPE Treatment Act, passed in 2026.
Alex West, A/LPC-MHSP (TN lic. #7904), practicing under the supervision of Dr. Joy Samuels, LPC-MHSP (TN lic. #2364).
