Yurik Resetnikov remembers catching a big wave.
It’s the day after the annual Moloka‘i Hoe Canoe Race in Oahu — Oct. 12, 2015. Resetnikov, the coach of the Kai ‘Opua Canoe Club at the time, was enjoying bodysurfing with his team on Sandy Beach before flying back to the Big Island. It’s a typical seaside activity for the former Kona firefighter to partake in, as he is also an avid surfer and spear fisherman.
With a sizable wave approaching in chest-deep water, Resetnikov went to duck under the collapsing white cap to take another ride.
“I thought it was a great wave,” he recalled.
Once Resetnikov was tucked underneath the water, the wave’s force caused him to hit the seafloor. However, this is sometimes normal for bodysurfing, as he recalled laughing underwater at the excitement of what was happening.
But once Resetnikov attempted to stand up to get out of the water, he couldn’t move.
“There wasn’t any pain,” Resetnikov said. “But from my experience with the fire department, I could pretty much tell right away that I was screwed.”
From there, Resetnikov’s memory is hazy. The next wave came quickly and knocked him out — filling his lungs with water. Rescuers then found Resetnikov unconscious on the bottom, spending almost the next 20 minutes trying to revive the firefighter on the beach with a defibrillator and manual CPR.
After 16 minutes of no breathing, the first responders were finally able to move Resetnikov’s oxygenated blood around his brain to prevent damage, which ultimately saved his life.
Resetnikov was then rushed to the hospital, where doctors learned that he completely severed his spine — permanently paralyzing him from the neck down to his feet.
“I woke up in the hospital, and that’s when the journey started,” he said.
New beginnings
Adjusting to Resetnikov’s new life wasn’t easy, especially in the beginning. On top of being unable to control most of his body, Resetnikov was unable to speak at first. His sole way of communicating was through blinking at a letterboard to spell words for his caretakers to interpret — which was a tedious and frustrating process.
“Trying to say something like, ‘I am hungry,’ would take like five to 10 minutes,” Resetnikov remembered.
After being discharged from his initial ICU in Honolulu, Resetnikov became a candidate for admission into Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado — which specializes in neurorehabilitation. Once he was accepted into the program, Resetnikov underwent a few additional surgeries and intense physical therapy in his near year at Craig, which gave him the ability to do many of the day-to-day activities he still does today in his wheelchair.
Although the physical challenges were beyond what most can imagine, Resetnikov admits his negative thoughts were short-lived. As a husband and father of two girls, he was more worried about how his family’s lives would be impacted from the incident over his own.
“I knew that it was permanent, so that part was easy to accept,” Resetnikov said. “But the fact that I had a wife and two young girls was the hardest part.
“It became more about how I was going to be a good husband, dad, coworker and so on. “(The accident) really put things in perspective of what’s important and what you’re striving for in this situation.”
Back to recreation
To help Resetnikov become the best version of himself for his loved ones post accident, he made a personal goal to stay active in outdoor sports when he returned to Hawaii — even if it meant there would be challenges in a wheelchair.
“It was super important for me to get some piece of my life back and feel a little more normal,” Resetnikov said.
Less than a year after the accident, following countless hours of therapy and paraplegic training, Resetnikov paddled in the final mile-and-a-half in the 2016 Queen Liliuokalani Long Distance Canoe Race as an unofficial entry.
“They strapped me in the canoe and tied the duct tape and the paddle to my hands,” he said. “And I paddled the race.”
From there, Resetnikov’s journey in wheelchair sports officially began. Since it didn’t take long for him to rekindle his joy for outdoor recreation, Resetnikov took interest in sports he had never played — one of them being wheelchair soccer.
In early July, Resetnikov traveled to Portland, Oregon, to compete in soccer for the very first time at the 2023 National Veterans Wheelchair Games. The games are much like the Olympics, featuring a variety of sports such as basketball, rugby and soccer.
In the games’ soccer tournament, teams are selected upon arrival to Portland. With the event being similar to ‘schoolyard rules,’ Resetnikov’s name was drawn by ‘Team Mount Rainier’ — where he joined a goalie and two other players to form a four-person team. All other teams had the same number of players and were named after iconic mountains in the Pacific Northwest.
The tournament followed a round-robin format, and players were allowed to use a special chair or their own. The special chairs consisted of a bulldozer contraption used as a kicking tool.
“It gets pretty competitive,” Resetnikov admitted.
While Resetnikov didn’t know anyone on his team at first, he enjoyed forming new relationships with people who had similar struggles to his. The new bondage within the group became so strong that Team Mount Rainier took gold at the end of the games.
“It felt great,” Resetnikov said on winning the event. “Especially coming together and meeting strangers, getting to know them and then coming out on top with them to get the gold.
“It was a fun experiment — definitely something I am going to try to keep up with.”
Paying it forward and what’s next
Outside of wheelchair soccer, Resetnikov has also served as an ambassador for Surf for Special Needs (S4SN), a nonprofit organization that gives adaptive surfing lessons and free entertainment to anyone with a disability. To calm any nerves from participants, a ukulele player joins everyone on the water on a surfboard to perform some tranquil island tunes.
“The silver lining (from my accident) is that it put my life in this direction (of helping people),” Resetnikov said. “For me, it takes your mind and suspense away from everything.”
While participating in recreational wheelchair activities may seem daunting for some, Resetnikov encourages anyone on the fence to try it out, and promises it will give them a much more positive outlook on their situation.
“As long as it’s safe, don’t hesitate — just do it,” he said. “Even if you’re scared, try it and you’ll feel better.
“I tell people (in my situation) that you have to find ‘it’ every day, and that’s hard. But every day, you have to keep your cup half full. If it’s half empty, you’re losing the battle. You have to find a way to stay positive.”
Despite limitations, Resetnikov plans to stay active in recreational activities for the rest of his life. Still residing in Kona, he continues to surf with S4SN and plans on joining the Hawaii Adaptive Surf Team in October after getting surgery on his left hand. The organization fosters surfers with disabilities and competes all over the world. He also continues to fish when he has time.
“For me, it was important to just stay active and try to remain as independent as I can,” Resetnikov explained. “Especially in this life.
“When you get more sedentary, you have a chance of having a lot more medical issues like pressure sores and problems with your organs if you’re not staying active and moving things around. So I try to just do that as much as I can. I definitely am very much more appreciative of any kind of activities that I get to do, because it’s not as easy to do anymore.”
Resetnikov also recently purchased a van with a wheelchair ramp on the mainland that he plans to use to drive to spinal cord hospitals to speak with new patients. Resetnikov intends to give advice, encouragement and support as a way to pay it forward to those going through similar circumstances as him.
“I want to show these people that life is still possible,” he said. “I want them to see that even if you’re quadriplegic, you can still live on your own and do many things.”
But most importantly, Resetnikov hopes he can help instill a positive mindset into the patients he visits, as his outlook on life has been an important pillar of support over the last eight years. He emphasized that putting the little things into perspective goes a long way in the adjustment of this new life.
“(The accident) has definitely given me a new outlook on life,” Resetnikov said. “I appreciate a sunny day a lot more; I appreciate the simple things in life a lot more.
“(The accident) also taught me a lot of patience. I was not a patient person before, but in this life, oftentimes you have to wait for help. I learned a lot of patience and humility, and I don’t know if I would have gained all that before.”