Drug Free Lifestyle

Me Filming on the beach at the 2009 World Championships of Surf Kayaking in Portugal - Photo Andy Gates

HOW TO GO SURF KAYAKING is a film I’ve been working on for several years, and finally completed last winter.  This is a story about friends, it’s about a sport we love, traveling at great lengths to do it, and learning lessons along the way.  Over the last decade I logged countless hours of footage, journals, photos and memories of surf kayaking.  While reflecting on the memories I conveyed through my film I was also mentally processing the most difficult thing I have ever faced in my life, which was the horrific memory of being sexually assaulted as a young child.  Though the film topic does not address sexual assault in the least, the fact that I was rethinking a more recent, positive history while exploring a deep, dark part of my life made both topics equally emotional and important to me.  It was as if my thought process while making the film, writing the script and recalling events engaged my mind in such a way that it allowed me to access and reassemble memories far older.  Whether the viewer realizes it or not, there is emotion and feeling of my entire life poured into this video edit.  I carefully and thoughtfully chose a soundtrack that was equally meaningful to me, both for the messages the artists convey in their songs and for the beautiful synchronization of the music with the images on the screen.  Among other things, the people in the film, who are some of my best friends and family, are among those who have supported me through dealing with being sexually assaulted as a child.

I choose to raise awareness about Sexual Assault, and more specifically, Childhood Sexual Assault, because it is an EPIDEMIC.  My friends and those who have stumbled upon this bit, do not be fooled and do not be naive about this.  Sexual Assault is as serious and dangerous as anything else you consider a danger in this world.  It crushes people’s lives and creates depression, alcoholism and drug addiction.  My own aversion to alcohol and drugs is just as much related to being sexually assaulted as any other one factor.  Some people turn to a dependency on substances to mask the trauma they experienced, but because substance usage represented a loss of control to me, I had the adverse reaction which was to stay away from drugs and alcohol.

The statistics are shocking, horrifying and difficult to imagine, but they are so real.  Check the facts for yourself: 1 of 6 boys between the ages of 3 and 17 is sexually assaulted.  1 of 4 girls between the ages of 3 and 17 is sexually assaulted.  Those are reported statistics, and I am here to tell you that the numbers are far greater than what is reported.  My two best childhood friends and myself were all sexually assaulted as young children, in three different households, different towns by different perpetrators.  Just among the three of us we broke the stats.  Further, you should know that the perpetrator is rarely a stranger or someone you may have profiled out on the streets or in public.  More times than not, the perpetrator is right under our noses.  These are quite often family members such as uncles, cousins, moms, aunts, dads, grandparents, babysitters and other “trusted” people.  This was exactly the case in my family, and in the case of most people whose stories I have listened to.  A final shocking statistic is this, and it is one to keep in mind.  In the life of a child molester they will typically abuse upwards of TWO-HUNDRED kids.  That’s 200.  Furthermore, 10-20% of those abused may become perpetrators themselves if they are not corrected and cared for at an early age.  Stopping one person can stop a catastrophic domino effect.

Me at 6-years old, amongst Child Molesters

This is why my film raises awareness for the topic of sexual assault.  I am not ashamed of being raped and I am not afraid to talk about it, to anyone.  If you have a question for me or would like to discuss this topic, please reach out to me.  The only way to fight this epidemic and to protect children and people’s lives is to TALK!

Now if you please, enjoy my film.  More importantly, do some good for the children of this world and the survivors of sexual assault and share this post with anyone and everyone.

- Spencer Cooke
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