A short documentary style film telling the story of Josh Bogle, an adaptive surfer, in Hawaii. His story resembles a long and emotional struggle with an addiction to pain medication. This abuse, alongside a serious of unfortunate events, ultimately lead to his loss of limbs. Surfing and its community, however, have not only enabled him to recover, but the sport has since provided him with amazing opportunities, such as competing professionally in the adaptive surf-league in Bali and the UK in 2019.
You can find out more about Josh from his online bio below, follow josh on instagram here.
My name is Josh Bogle.
I am a quad amputee that still has a Shaka 🤙🏼 on my left hand. Yes my life was not born this way but rather adapted after injury. It all started with a series of accidents that ultimately got me hooked on pain killers.
This is not how I lost my legs but how I ended up in an unhealthy state of living. Pain meds addiction caused my body to become so unhealthy that only after I stepped on a fish hook and was in a coma for 17 days did I end up losing my limbs.
My body was unable to get oxygen to my limbs during the coma and I had tissue damage from that period of time. Life in 2012 was my wake up call and the rebirth of surfing came after.
I would never have guessed I would paddle out into surf of awaken the life I have now. So I guess here is the story of how I found the waves and the ocean set me free. In 2017/2018 I started swimming in the shoreline and going to the beach to strip off my prosthetic legs to swim in the ocean.
The sound of the surf and fresh air called our to my soul and spirit. The effort it took to get myself to the beach and take off my legs was a huge deal and I would go just to lay in the sun and swim. After a few months of this I started to watch the surfers and think to myself that really looks like flying. It was a dream but later over the next year I found way to try and then keep trying.
I learned to surf about 2-3 years ago and found adaptive surfing to be the most freeing feeling in the world. The feeling of flying with the ocean and water really connected with me.
This is the year 2018 that I went to my first adaptive surf contest at Dukes Fest in Waikiki. So far in 2019 I got to surf in 4 countries and see places that I only ever read about: Castles in England & Wales, Europe, Bali. Hawaii, and California.
In the end, I am just a guy with a dream and a funny looking hand, no legged body but I still find a way to surf and stay positive charge all the waves I can.
Aloha, Josh Bogle
