Owen Wright has had his first surf since sustaining a head injury at Pipeline last winter. Head injuries can take months of rehabilitation and we still don’t know the full extent of Owen’s. Rumours circle, but nothing has been confirmed from either Rip Curl or the World Surf League. We can only hope that he is responding to treatment and will make a full recovery.
Yesterday he took to social media and posted an image of him attempting to go for a surf with the help of his girlfriend and musician, Kita Alexander.
“Sharing my journey – I went for my first surf a couple days ago. It was the funnest thing in the world. Funny thing is… i couldn’t get to my feet. So I just layed there. It was about knee high and the drop was.. well there was none but it felt like I was dropping into 10ft teahupoo. I finished the wave and I was so stoked I let out a hoot and claimed it and high fived kita.”
“5 mins later I was on the beach and started to think about what I actually did and started comparing it to what I used to be like or what everybody else was doing out there… and started to question why cant i….this I found started to ruin my experience and change how I really felt.
“It made me realise that ……self improvement is necessary but to focus on camparison of what used to be, what others can do or why you’re not good enough is detrimental to the now; negative emotion in your self will hinder improvement and happiness.Simple statement …. challenging to practice.”
Profound words.
At the Roxy Pro, sister Tyler cited Owen’s accident as a source of inspiration for her to fulfil her dreams of securing her first world title. “I was on my brother’s shoulders and they whispered to me, ‘Hey look up the top there’ It was Owen… and he’s so not meant to be here but he was like, ‘I wouldn’t miss this for the world’… To be honest I think the reason I was able to do what I did here was through the last couple of months of experience. It’s made everything so simple and so clear.”
Let’s hope Owen’s spirit and determination will help propel his recovery forward and we see the big man back in the not too distant future.
