RIDE AWAY: INSPIRING STUFF

RIDE AWAY: INSPIRING STUFF

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

World’s Best Adaptive Surfers Shine

Brazil’s Figue Diel is completely blind, but that doesn’t stop him from finding the perfect spot on the wave above.

La Jolla, California, December 13, 2018 – The world’s best adaptive surfers shined on the second day of competition at the 2018 Stance ISA World Adaptive Surfing Championship presented by the City of San Diego, taking advantage of the global spotlight to put their elite talent on display.

Ten of the twelve divisions took to water to represent their nations in the first full day of competition.

The first-ever visually impaired women debuted in the event in both the open and women’s divisions, showing how the sport has spread to new athletes around the globe since the inaugural edition

Canada’s Ling Pan put on great performances in the visually impaired divisions her first time participating in the world championship.

“It was so nerve-wracking competing in this event for the first time,” said Pan. “I realized that I just need to have fun. It’s an honor to represent Canada.

“I told my mom that I was embarrassed to compete as a visually impaired surfer. She told me to practice, but more importantly, that my participation here is not just about me. This is about showing other young women that are facing challenges that you can overcome and do anything that you set your mind to.

“My goal is to show everyone, especially other visually impaired women, that surfing is fun.”

Australia’s Samantha Bloom put on the top performance of the day in the women’s AS-4 Division, earning a high heat total of 16.50 in her quest towards the Gold Medal. Bloom is making a strong statement in her first year competing in the event.

Thursday saw the first women divisions of the event take place, which is of particular importance because this is the first year that the women’s divisions will count towards the overall team point rankings. The women and open divisions each hold 50% of the weight, underlining the ISA’s drive for gender equality across all disciplines of Surfing.

South Africa’s Antony Smyth, a 2016 Gold Medalist, led the charge in the open divisions, earning a heat total of 16.33 in AS-1.

Past ISA Gold Medalists Fellipe Lima (BRA), Kazune Uchida (JPN) and Jesse Billauer (USA) also had strong showings, getting off to quick starts in their campaigns to add to their Gold Medal counts.

The 2016 AS-5 World Champion, Brazil’s Davi Teixeira, took first place in his qualifying heat of the morning and commented on his fourth experience at the event.

“The level of competition is so high,” said Teixeira. “It’s getting better every year.

“My goal this year is to ride some great waves and win. Being crowned world champion would mean so much for me and for my family, friends, and country. This is for them.”

ISA President Fernando Aguerre said:

“The conditions have been flawless for the first two days of the event. We have had sun, no wind, and plenty of waves on tap. What more could we ask for?

“It’s incredible to see how the level of talent around the globe has been growing over the four years of the event. These are the world’s best and they did not disappoint.

“The youthful energy and high-performance action that I have witnessed in Para-Surfing this week would be a great fit for the Paralympic Games. We will keep working to get this sport onto the world’s greatest sporting stage.”

The 2018 Stance ISA World Adaptive Surfing Championship is streamed live daily on www.isasurf.org.

The remaining schedule is as follows:

December 14-16
• Competition at La Jolla Shores, 7:00am – 4:00pm
Sunday, December 16
• Closing Ceremony at La Jolla Shores following the competition Finals

For updated results click here