“I Went Paralyzed”: After Owen Wright’s Brutal Surfing Injury, 23-Year-Old Explains Life Without a Voice

From pros to amateurs, surfing enthusiasts can seldom evade the danger when Mother Nature decides to show her fury. While injuries aren’t something alien to surfers, sometimes things can go beyond what the mind can comprehend. In 2015, the world was left horrified after celebrity Australian surfer Owen Wright met a serious incident that temporarily took away his ability to walk. While he successfully managed to rise above the ordeal, another connoisseur of the sport faced similar troubles.

In 2021, Becca Speak collided with the waves that snatched her speaking capabilities. Thanks to rigorous post-traumatic care, the 23-year-old gradually regained control over her auditory muscles. And now, she has some wisdom to impart to others to help them through such unnerving times.

In a recent article by cnn.com, Speak’s efforts to spread awareness for head injuries have been shed light upon. In the article, Becca talked about how her brain injury swamped her with fears of being unable to perform her motor skills and how she managed to come out of the fearful cocoon with help from her friends and medical experts. “As soon as I hit my head, I went paralyzed for a moment,” said the surfing star, reminiscing about her harrowing experience. The aftermath was even more terrible.

“Eventually I felt like I was falling into a vegetative state“, recounted Speak from the nightmarish times as she talked about how it took three months to regain her basic speech patterns that were attributed to a serious traumatic brain injury. But now, after her own eye-opening experience, Speak is eyeing a shot at helping others come out of their own troubles.

Becca shared her experiences with filmmakers Jordyn Romero and Anna Wilder Burns to raise awareness about how brain injuries can create serious damaging effects. An “intimate and vulnerable” film about Speak’s recovery will aim to make more sports stars properly comprehend what such an injury can do to them. “…you have to get beyond what you think is normal” is what Becca had to say. But she has someone close at hand to look up to and come out of the turbulent times stronger than ever.

A shining example to look up to

Despite the hard-hitting series of waves that took away Owen Wright’s walking and speaking abilities, the Australian rose above the troubles with gusto and vigor that culminated in an Olympic bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Ranked as the 5th surfer in the world by the World Surfing League’s 2015 lists, Wright was en route to end the year on a high note after having done well at the Fiji Pro. However, while preparing for the final event of the year (the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii), Owen was crushed by a series of tremendous waves that felt like “a building collapsing on him”. But he didn’t let that get the best of him.

A series of dynamic neuromuscular stabilization exercises helped Owen get back to competing after the crash accident. But all that effort was made worth it after his podium finish at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Now, as Becca looks to bounce back from the troublesome times, she might take a cue from the Olympian to hasten her progress further.

Read more: Surfing World Humbly Requests Fans To Help Out As Pro Eimeo Czermak Undergoes Life-Threatening Surgery Over Recent Accident