Supporting ParaSurfing & Llywelyn
With the long-awaited Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games finally arriving, we’ll be cheering on team GB and hoping that ParaSurfing (aka Adaptive Surfing) will join the list of events at Los Angeles 2028, following the successful debut of Surfing at Tsurigasaki Beach.
As long-term supporters of the BWA (British Wavesailing Association), we’re proud to announce our new sponsorship of Llywelyn Williams as he aims to become World Champion and compete in future Paralympics, as the ISA (International Surfing Association) pushes to get the sport included to showcase its therapeutic healing power.
Having fallen in love with surfing at 12 during a lesson at the youth club, Llywelyn’s life was changed at 16 when he was hit by a car whilst skateboarding home. Suffering from life-threatening injuries, he was placed in a coma and lost his leg through amputation to help save him. After weeks in intensive care and intensive physiotherapy, just two months later his mates carried him to the beach, so he could ‘get back in the water’.
Ten years on and ’Sponge’ has just defended his Sitting/Kneeling title (again) at the English Adaptive Surf Open, with an epic 360 on The Wave, Bristol. Next, it’s off to California for the US Open Adaptive Surfing Championship at Oceanside, then the 2021 ISA World Para Surfing Championship at Pismo Beach before the end of the year.
A keen promotor of the sport, he also arranged and organised the Welsh Adaptive Surfing Championship at SurfSnowdonia, the first ever to take place on inland waves… and TMR are stoked to be the lead sponsor of the follow-up 2022 event. Helping Llywelyn build on his desire to get disadvantaged kids in the water to experience the benefits of surfing, as he recalls his first time back in the waves.
“As the first wave hit me and I came back up, I felt alive again. Surfing is the best!”
Like our Team GB athletes in Tokyo, he’s certainly impossible to ignore, so we look forward to working together and will keep you updated with the crests and curls…
