Resilience at its finest. Photo: WSL / Ed Sloane
The North Shore was a merciless force last winter. Thanks to an exceptionally strong El Niño, Pipeline destroyed countless egos and nearly ended the careers of a number of surfers, including Evan Geiselman, Owen Wright, and Bede Durbidge, among many others. Bede, who shattered his pelvis after slamming into the reef during the Pipe Masters, was forced to withdraw from competition for what we thought would be the rest of the season. Or so we thought.
Against all odds, Bede is making an incredibly fast recovery and has announced he will soon be wearing a jersey again. And he’s not starting off easy. In fact, Bede’s planning on kicking off his return to competition on the very same stretch of coast that nearly ended his professional surfing career—he’s starting with Haleiwa, Sunset, and then Pipe. How heavy is that?
Recently, Bede caught up with the WSL to talk about his injury and his epic return. Here’s what he had to say:
I can’t thank my family, friends, fans, sponsors and the WSL enough for all the support over the last eight months. It has felt like a long time on the sidelines, but knowing I have all that positive support coming in has helped so much with my recovery.
I have been so blessed to have been living out my dream of being a pro surfer over the years. Traveling to all my favourite breaks and surfing against some of my good mates is pretty surreal. This year would have been my 12th consecutive year on the WSL Championship Tour but not being able to compete has really made me reflect on all the good times I have had on tour and drives me to get back to that level.
I have been so lucky to have received such great medical treatment and advice throughout this whole ordeal. Everyone I have worked with since day one has got me to where I’m at. There are too many people to name, but you know who you are and I can’t thank you enough.
My recovery is going so well. So much better than I thought it would to be honest. I was given about a 12-month recovery diagnosis from the doctor and I feel I’m about 75% right now.
I have been surfing for a couple of months now. I was on a longboard for a few weeks then upgraded to a 6’8 single fin for about a month and now I’m back on my regular shortboard. Every surf I go for, it feels better and better.
I have entered Haleiwa, Sunset and Pipe in Hawaii. It will be 11 months since the injury and I feel the Triple Crown will be the perfect time and venue to pull the competition vest back on. I’m so excited to compete again, but I know I have a few more months of solid training and I’ll be back surfing at 100%.
Thanks again for all your support and encouragement it has me so pumped to come back bigger and better.
