JADE ‘‘Red’’ Wheatley says surfing ‘‘got me off my arse and ripping into things again’’ after losing his lower legs in a heavy machinery accident 15 years ago.
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Now the father of two from Garden Suburb wants to feed his competitive animal and lead the way for others with disabilities to do the same at the first World Adaptive Surfing Championship.
The 33-year-old is aiming to compete at the International Surfing Association event in La Jolla, San Diego in America from September 24-27 and has launched a campaign online with crowd-funding website mycause.com.au under the label ‘‘Red NoLegs’’ to make it a reality.
‘‘I love going out there and blowing their minds.’’
- Jade 'Red' Wheatley
His $15,000 target will not only cover the costs of competition, but help fund a team of Australian surfers, document their efforts and build towards the ultimate sporting goal.
‘‘It’s about bringing the adaptive sport back to Australia because there’s nothing here at the moment,’’ Mr Wheatley said.
‘‘There’s adaptive coaching, a symposium while we are over there, so it’s going to be amazing.
‘‘It’s more about what we can bring back here because the whole aim is to get surfing in the Paralympics, which looks like it will happen by 2020.
‘‘Surfing in the Olympics sounds crazy, but it’s going to happen.’’
Mr Wheatley has become a popular member of the Hunter surfing community since returning to Newcastle from north Queensland 15 years ago after the accident that changed his life.
He was operating a compaction roller when an embankment gave way, tipping the machine over and onto his legs as he jumped from the vehicle.
The Newcastle-born man relocated to attend The Limb Centre at John Hunter Hospital and made contact with the Disabled Surfers Association of Australia.
Mr Wheatley said he ‘‘always had the fever’’ for surfing but it had played an even greater role in his life since the accident.
‘‘Surfing’s sort of got me off my arse and got me ripping into things I suppose,’’ he said.
‘‘I used to wheel my wheelchair down from Kemp Street [in Hamilton South] with my boogie board on my lap all the way to The Cliff, go surfing all day and then wheel back home.
‘‘That was all part of the rehab.
‘‘The first day I stood up, I went from a boogie board to my knees, was with [1988 world champion] Barton Lynch at Collaroy about 10, 12 years ago and I haven’t looked back.
‘‘Since then, it’s been an addiction, once I found out I could do it again.’’
And he doesn’t just surf.
He regularly charges down waves of all sizes out with the region’s best surfers, including world qualifying series No.7 ranked Ryan Callinan and former Bells Beach champion Matt Hoy.
‘‘Now I think about it, it must spin people out,’’ he said.
‘‘I look back, I just used to paddle out in boardies and there’s a few scars on my legs. It would have looked like I’d been freshly chewed at by a shark or something.
‘‘It spins some people out but a lot of people go nuts about it.
‘‘That’s what I like about it, I love going out there and blowing their minds.’’
Mr Wheatley’s good humour about his disability was evident this month when a photo of his prosthetic legs sticking out from under a blanket on the beach sparked interest on social media.
‘‘Haha my legs are famous,’’ he responded on Facebook.
Since his accident, he has married his former neighbour, Renae, and they have a daughter, Kalahni, 10, and son, Kai, seven.
He returned to work seven years ago, getting ‘‘back on the horse that bit me’’ driving heavy machinery, at Wilpinjong Mine, north-east of Mudgee. While life out of the water keeps him busy, he has found new passion on the waves he hopes to satisfy in San Diego.
‘‘Even now, I’m competitive out in the water without any competition, so to be able to feed that hunger is pretty good,’’ he said.
‘‘You get sick of those fun days, that’s all there really is for people like us adaptive surfers.
‘‘There’s a fun day for this or that, you get your lolly bag and your show bag at the end of it and you go home.
‘‘But the whole thing about the world championships, it’s proper competition with all the competition rules, and you’re up against the best.’’
He is aiming to compete individually in the upright division but is hopeful of finding other adaptive surfers to make up an Australian line-up for the teams division in September.
‘‘The US is one of the biggest teams because this sport has been almost solely built over there because of Iraq, Afghanistan war veterans coming back,’’ he said.
‘‘They’ve had bits of them blown off, but they are mad keen surfers that still rip it up.’’
A fundraiser at The Lass O’Gowrie Hotel on September 6 will be held for Mr Wheatley and Surfest chief Warren Smith hopes the wider community gets behind the campaign.
‘‘Anything Surfest and the surfing community can do to help Red get through to the event, we’ll do,’’ Mr Smith said. ‘‘He’s a courageous person. I’ve watched him go down and surf and he’s an inspiration to everyone.
‘‘If we can all get behind him and help him, it will be fantastic to see him go over there and represent Newcastle.’’
ISA president Fernando Aguerre said: ‘‘Our goals are to make the sport of surfing more accessible to physically challenged surfers, offer a premier competitive opportunity for those surfers and to connect the international community of athletes with one another.”
The symposium held as part of the event is aimed at building on the first championships to raise awareness, share best practices and initiate a conversation about how surfing can play an ongoing and vital role in enriching the lives of physically-challenged athletes.
Help fund Jade 'Red' Wheatley's dream here