The Road To Recovery From A World Title To Major Brain Concussion And Back Again
Sebastian recently sat with Owen Wright, currently ranked seventh in the world for surfing, in our sauna, of course, to talk all things health, recovery and surfing, and to share some of his epic journey with us.
We're honored that Owen had the time to come and hang out in the sauna with us and share his story in the hopes that it sheds some light on this real issue for surfers everywhere.
Owen began surfing almost as soon as he could walk, and was surf competitively since the age of 10, with 6 or 7 competitions a year. Owen won an Australian Title at the age of 17, and earned himself Rookie of the Year on his debut of the CT at the age of 20. The biggest accomplishment for Owen ~ and "hardest slog" ~ was qualifying for the top bracket at 19, "once you get to the world tour, you're up against you know, Kelly Slater who had been on tour your whole entire life growing up." But that was the passion and the dream for a young Owen, with sponsorship from leading brands like Rip Curl, he was competing against the best and loving it.
Then in December 2015, everything changed.
Owen was in Hawaii competing for a world title, ranked 5th at the time. Free surfing the day before his heat, Owen took a wipeout that changed the course of his life. He'd already had a series of concussions leading up to the event, but nothing nearly as bad, this wipeout caused a brain injury that took Owen out of the competition. There's been a significant amount of research that's come out of that incident and Owen discovered that when you've suffered a series of concussions, it can lead to a major concussion, which in turn can cause a brain injury. Which is exactly what happened that day in December.
The world may think that this is a rare occurrence, but Owen says that concussion is a part of the job and that you can't stop minor ones from happening.
Owen stresses that these stories within the sport have to be picked up and recognised because no one's talking about it - we're out in the ocean, where people cant watch us, disappearing between waves and out of sight. This kind of thing (concussions) have been happening for a long time. For Owen, it happened in front of everyone... he was going for a world title. It was big news and now he feels okay talking about it and bringing awareness to the issues to help other people going through the same thing.