We are excited to announce that our October retreat applications for young men and women with limb difference are now open! 2023 marks ten years of retreats for our Beautifully Flawed Retreat (BFR) for young women and four years of our newest program, the Forge Retreat, for young men with limb difference. Applications for new and returning attendees, as well as leader positions are available now. This year, the retreats will be held back to back consisting of four action-packed days during October 23 – 30, 2023 in Del Mar, CA. Specific dates for each retreat to be announced.

Inspired by our ten incredible years of Beautifully Flawed Retreats and our goal to raise up new inspiring stories within the adaptive community, this year’s retreat will have many extra special touches. New activities and special guests will be a part of this year’s schedule that we are very excited about.

As the Forge Retreat continues to grow each year, our goal for 2023 is to have as many Forge attendees as we do Beautifully Flawed attendees. Each year we accept about 20 Beautifully Flawed attendees, so we hope to grow the 2023 Forge community to that number as well. During last year’s retreat, we witnessed powerful healing, incredible community built, and lives forever changed so we hope to continue building on that success.

One major change for our October 2023 retreats is that due to their growing family, Bethany Hamilton, Adam Dirks, Tobias, Wesley, and Micah will not be joining us in person. We are so excited for Dirks Baby #4 and want to give Bethany and family the time and rest they need as they adjust to their latest addition. Instead, Bethany and Adam (and probably some guest appearances of the kids) will join in virtually in some of the group sessions. We look forward to having the entire Dirks family join us for the retreats again in 2024!

With the addition of our Beautifully Flawed Retreat for returning attendees on Kauai this May, 2023 is already shaping up to be a big year for us. This is our second year of hosting three retreats in one year, but we are stoked to be able to connect with that many more attendees in person. Mahalo to our incredible community for supporting us and helping us grow. Together we get to forever change lives with hope!

If you or someone you know is a young man or woman with limb difference and could benefit from these adaptive and healing retreats, please have them apply! Application deadline for the Beautifully Flawed Retreat is Wednesday, May 31, 2023. The men’s Forge Retreat application deadline has been extended to Friday, June 30th.