Waves of glory for surfers Ant and Bruno
The two men have overcome huge odds to get to where they are now.
BRAZIL may have won the team trophy at the recent 2016 Stance ISA World Adaptive Surfing Championships in La Jolla, California, but two former South Coasters were very much in the mix and walked away with gold medals.
One was Ant Smyth, the other was Bruno Hansen, the latter competing for Denmark, ironically.
Bruno has won gold before, but for Ant, who hails from Port Edward and now lives in Hout Bay, it was his first and he was understandably chuffed.
These two were ‘hardcore’ locals in the 1980s.
Ant has had a deformed right arm and hand since he was a boy. He sees it as an asset in a way as “no one forgets him”.
He was in a car accident in Port Edward when he was five years old.
His brachial plexus (nerve in the neck) was severed, which resulted in the paralysis of his right arm.
The silver linings are many though, he says.
“One of them is that I started surfing because of my arm, the doctors encouraged me to go surfing so that I would use my arm. I ended up only paddling with one arm anyway.”
Bruno lost the use of his legs after a car accident about 20 years ago.
He had come to Indonesia in 1994 as a captain on a surf charter boat in Sumatra.
He flew back to South Africa and on the way to the airport to return to continue to captain the yacht, driving a convertible with a beautiful girl, got carjacked.
He remembers being shot at, and the car rolling. The rest was a blur but he remembers the men beating him up.
He was half out of the car, legs stuck, seatbelt on, and the car rolled again, breaking his back.
Bruno now travels the world on his yacht, and is based in Indonesia. Ant lives in Hout Bay, Cape Town.
Aside from the surfing, another highlight was having their good mate Jean-Michel Koenig fly over to watch.
He’s been friends with them since their days at Port Shepstone High, and couldn’t resist the opportunity to surprise them both. It was a special moment.
Team Brazil emerged victorious and was crowned the first-ever Adaptive Surfing World Team Champion.
The host Team USA earned the silver medal, with Chile and Australia respectively earning the bronze and copper medals.
South Africa finished in sixth place.
Three of the four gold medalists in the inaugural edition in 2015 defended their titles, namely Brazil’s Fellipe Lima (AS-3, upright), Bruno Hansen (AS-4, prone) and Australia’s Mark ‘Mono’ Stewart (AS-2, stand/kneel).
Spain’s Aitor Francesena (AS-VI, visually impaired), Brazil’s Davi Teixeira (AS-5, assist) and South Africa’s Antony Smyth (AS-1, stand/kneel) were the first-time gold medalists.
The South Coast region has a remarkable surfing pedigree, producing champions like like Ant Brodowicz, Heather Clark, Andrew Banks, Kay Holt and others.
“The challenging waves we surf here really equate to the most difficult and perfect in the world,” said Kay, who is now based in Cape Town, but visits her home town from time to time.
“So for a guy like Ant to get to the backline, or to the back as we surfers say, he had to be really brave. We all know fear is from the devil, but I know that to paddle into sizable waves it is not easy for a woman with two arms – and here he does it ‘solo’ and then rips on the waves. That in itself deserves a medal of honour!”
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