Visiting kayak instructor Joe Mornini aims his boat for the small waterfall and paddles through, dropping about five feet into the white water below.

"That's one heck of a drop!" he says, looking worriedly upstream, where a cadre of mostly first-timers are ready to make the same drop. "You gotta be kidding!"

But no one even hesitates. Army Spc. Andy Soule goes first. His purple kayak slips down the waterfall.

"Paddle paddle paddle!" Mornini bellows. "All the way out of the white water! Paddle paddle paddle!"

Soule powers through to an eddy that allows him to turn around, just in time to watch Staff Sgt. Dan Regan go for it.

His face crumples in pain for a split second as he, too, drops smoothly to the bottom of the fall, then paddles out of the way.

"Man, that hurt my stump," he tells Soule.

Regan lost his right leg in a boating accident, ending up at Brooke Army Medical Center last May for rehabilitation. That's where he met Soule, who lost both his legs above the knee to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.

Both men were kayaking for the first time, thanks to Mornini, the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project, and the founders of Red River Racing, a nonprofit outfit on the upper San Marcos River that trains Olympic and Junior Olympic whitewater paddlers.

Mornini, a 30-year kayaking veteran, was flown to San Antonio for the weekend by the project to coach the Red River crew and others who want to create a program like Team River Runner, which Mornini spearheads at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Disabled Sports USA, which was founded in 1967 by disabled Vietnam veterans, teamed up with the Wounded Warrior Project to assist programs like Team River Runner, as evidence shows that sports like kayaking, skiing and cycling offer not just physical benefits but psychological ones as well.

Reagan Bretz, a retired Navy medical corpsman who served with the Marines during the fall of Baghdad, lives those benefits. He is part of a loose group, texaskayakfisherman.com, that fishes from open-topped kayaks.

"I was having psychological problems readjusting to life back at home," Bretz says. "Getting out in the water mellowed me out. It was good for me and my family. Now I want to help these guys."

Hundreds of soldiers and Marines have returned home as amputees since the war began. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 6 percent of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan have required amputations, twice the rate of any previous war.

In addition to weekly pool sessions, where they learn the basics, Mornini takes vets and their families to rivers all over the country. This summer, he's headed to Colorado - and after watching Soule and Regan for less than an hour, he wants them to come along.

In the water, the two men look exactly like everyone else, the lower halves of their bodies tucked into brightly-colored plastic kayaks.

Along with the soldiers are three physical therapists from BAMC, kayak instructor Rick Beale, and Olympic paddler Ben Kvanli and his wife, Michelle Clements, a three-time U.S. Kayak Marathon team member and Olympic hopeful. The couple run the Power Olympic Outdoor Center, where their Red River Racing organization is based.

"We probably wouldn't have done that steep of a drop at Walter Reed on our very first day," Mornini says as one of the physical therapists flips over during his attempt.

Later, Beale is showing Regan how to rock his kayak while keeping his upper body still.

"When you turn into the current, you'll use your right knee," he says.

"I don't have a right knee," Regan reminds him. But with his hips and abdomen muscles, Regan is soon rocking his kayak, too.

As Regan rocks, Clements videos the scene. She and Kvanli, who also offer kayak lessons to all levels and ages, are keenly interested in helping begin a kayaking program for veterans here.

Kvanli says Mornini's input has been invaluable, offering strategies to create a successful program.

"Volunteers, volunteers, volunteers," says Mornini. "You need plenty of kayakers - even beginners - willing to volunteer."

Donations, are crucial, too, he says, so the program can begin to buy boats and adaptive gear for the vets to use.

Capt. Amy Rota, a physical therapist at Fort Sam Houston, said six boats already have been promised.

"I am just so inspired by these guys," says Kvanli. "They get in a kayak and realize they can do the same as anyone, and they just go for it."

For more information, contact the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project at www.dsusa.org/WoundedWarrior.html, or (301) 217-9840. Locally, contact Ben Kvanli at 512.203.0093, or at Ben@kayakinstruction.org

Vets' whitewater challenge

Tracy Idell Hamilton
San Antonio Express News Staff Writer