Owen Wright back in mix for world surf success, Olympic selection after horror wipeout

Former surfing world No. 1 Owen Wright had to re-learn how to walk and talk following a horrible brain injury sustained while surfing in Hawaii. Four years on and the champion athlete is ready to take on the world.

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Former surfing world No. 1 Owen Wright has waited three long years for his injured brain to catch up with his body after a horrific wipeout sent him to “buggery and back’’.

Some days he forgot things, others days he just didn’t react quite right.

Sometimes the biggest man in world surfing lost his spatial awareness, other times he played conservative.

“I didn’t know what I didn’t know,’’ says Wright, who had to learn to walk, talk and surf again in the wake of brain trauma sustained in a wipeout in Hawaii in 2015.

“Sometimes there are things that aren’t quite right that you don’t know about until they get better and start to do them again.’’

Owen Wright competing at Snapper Rocks last year.

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Now, less than a week out from his expected first surf in the opener of the 2019 world tour at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast, Wright says the time is right for him to fly high again.

“I’ve waited a long time for this,’’ says the Gold Coast local.

There have been signs of the old Wright - he won his first Word Tour back after a year out at Snapper this time in 2017 - but until recently the gifted Australian surfer said he hadn’t really felt like his old self.

“About halfway through last year I started to feel faster and my brain was a little better again. I seemed to be reacting quicker and ready to train harder,’’ he says.

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“Since the head injury I couldn’t train hard as hard. Now, for the first time, I am back to training as hard as before the head injury.

“I am enjoying it for sure. It’s like I have waited a year to train like this again. It’s like a full refresh.

“I’ve been waiting for my brain to catch up and it has. It’s great to feel like my old self again.’’

Wright says he now knows he has been surfing conservatively during his comeback from the accident which almost claimed his life

But those days are over.

Owen Wright embraces runner-up Matt Wilkinson after he won the final of the 2017 Quiksilver Pro.

“I was worried to wipeout. I wasn’t practising manoeuvres I needed to, not doing the hight risk manouervers,’’ he says.

“A conservative approach gets you a long way but not to the top three in the world.’’

And that’s what Wright is aiming for, along with an Olympic appearance in Tokyo in 2020.

“I feel free to push the limits now,’’ he says.

“I couldn’t be happier with the timing with the Olympics looming.

“People will be hungrier than ever. To be more robust and take more risks and to be able to push myself is what I will need to make the Olympics.’’

Happy day. Owen Wright after making a fairytale comeback to the world tour after his horrific accident.

In his second season back from the accident at Pipeline in 2015, Wright last year finished sixth on the world tour — the second highest placed Australian behind No. 2 Julian Wilson.

This same position as one of Australia’s top two surfers in the world’s top 10 at the end of the 2019 world tour would likely earn him a ticket to Tokyo.

“I’d love to go to Tokyo. It’s a huge goal,’’ he says. “To represent Australia at an Olympics is a huge dream of most Aussie kids. I had it for sure.’’