Meet Adaptive Athlete: David Parra

David grew up in Imperial Beach, California and lived the quintessential California life as a kid, skateboarding, surfing, and snowboarding in the winters. He became comfortable in water at a young age through water polo and swimming, something that would help him later in life during a career in Naval Special Warfare. Upon graduating high school in 2009, David was a lifeguard for the city of San Diego for seven years before going to EMT school. It wasn’t until after completing EMT school that David felt called to enlist in the United States Navy. 

 

David became a SWCC operator, or Special Warfare Combat Crewman, and served for four and a half years in the Navy. During his time, he began to experience severe gastrointestinal issues that left him losing control of his bowels with lots of blood loss. He grew weak and lost over 50 pounds in a few months. Upon further testing it was discovered that David had ulcerative colitis and his symptoms would only worsen. 

 

Upon his symptoms getting worse, David was medically retired in February of this year and has been working on his healing and recovery. He wants to use his time at ATF to regain his physical as well as the mental strength he feels was taken from him by his condition.