Sam Bloom determined to win surfing competition for her family
A Hollywood star will portray Sam Bloom in a movie made about her tragic accident in Thailand in 2013. Bloom has been training with the help of her husband and a special board in hopes of becoming a world champion at surfing which has kept her happy.
Every waking moment, Sam Bloom feels like bluebottle jellyfish tentacles are stinging her feet, legs, bum and back — except when she’s surfing.
In the five years since she plunged five metres off a Thai balcony and broke her back, Mrs Bloom, 47, has spent countless days sat in her kitchen, watching the waves roll into Bilgola Beach through tears from the pain of her injuries and the agony of losing her independence.
“I’m not the person I used to be. I used to be happy, easy going and loved life, but I can’t say I wake up stoked anymore,” Mrs Bloom said.
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But her face lights up at the mention of surfing, which she’s been able to achieve with a special surfboard fitted with a handle and a pool noodle split in half and glued to the edges of the board to keep her legs from falling off.
In three weeks at a Paralympic-style, world-class surfing competition in California, USA, Mrs Bloom is hoping to be crowned world champion in her class of adaptive surfing for competitors with spinal injuries.
But the greatest Christmas gift of all would be a day of unbridled happiness.
“I’d love to be world champion, that’d be sick,” she said.
“But I’d really love to win to say thanks to my husband, Cam, and my boys for putting up with me and my grumpy moods.”
Without her husband, Cam, 47, Mrs Bloom wouldn’t be back in the water.
“There are days when Sam’s down and you can tell there’s an underlying sadness and quietness in the house, but surfing is a great distraction,” Mr Bloom said.
Every chance he gets Mr Bloom carries his wife to the car, takes her down to local Bungan beach, and goes through the rigmarole of dressing his wife in a wetsuit, carrying her and her board to the water, donning his own pair of flippers, pushing her board beyond the break and finally, pushing her on to a wave.
When The Sunday Telegraph spent the day with the Blooms on Thursday, Mrs Bloom, who has no core strength and is powerless to roll herself off a surfboard, struck her head on rocks and needed rescuing.
Once she caught her breath, she went back out to collect another wave with a smile on her face and an egg on her forehead.
Recovery has been a wild ride for Mrs Bloom, who will be portrayed in a biopic by Hollywood heavyweight Naomi Watts shooting next year.
When the pair met for the first time on Wednesday, they talked about motherhood and raising boys and only once mentioned the movie, when Mrs Bloom asked for her painful recovery to be depicted in raw detail.
“I want the movie to be real and honest,” Mrs Bloom said. “I don’t want the movie to sugar-coat anything.”
To see Sam’s work funding research to cure spinal cord injury, visit www.spinalcure.org.au/sambloom. For more information about Sam’s story, visit www.penguinthemagpie.com
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