Groms give injured Bede Durbidge motivation: ‘Just seeing their love for surfing makes me feel good’

IF Bede Durbidge needed any more motivation to get back on his board he didn’t have to look further than these junior surfers.

Bede Durbidge is doing his annual grom camp, but this time he is in his wheelchair is here with Zac Phillips, Tets Lewis, Johnny Saley, Jedd Golledge, Jasper Giddy and Declan Kelly. Pic John Gass

IF Bede Durbidge needed any more motivation to get back on his board he didn’t have to look further than these junior surfers.

With a 17cm rod and a metal plate fastened with four screws holding his pelvis together, he wheeled himself into Surfing Australia Hurley High Performance Centre yesterday.

The 32-year-old was so determined to meet the group of 14 grommets at a surf camp he usually hosts he wasn’t going to let a fractured hip caused a horror wipe-out at Pipeline a month ago stop him.

COAST PRO SURFER BEDE DURBIDGE RECOVERING

“Just seeing their love for surfing makes me feel good,” Durbidge said.

“It’s awesome to see the kids, I didn’t think I would be able to make it this year.

“I was just lucky I could get out of hospital and could make the journey down and see all of them.”

Durbidge was released from John Flynn Hospital just a week ago.

He admitted he had gone through an “absolute hell” after his shocking wipe-out in Hawaii in which he temporarily lost feeling in his legs.

Bede Durbidge. Picture: WSL/Kelly Cestari

Durbidge said it was a relief to be home with wife Tarryn and five-year-old daughter Willow.

He said he doesn’t know how many tour events he will miss but hopes to make a full recovery to get back on the world tour — which kicks off on the Gold Coast in March. .

“I’m through the worst part of it, in Hawaii it was an absolute hell,” the Currumbin local said.

“It’s so good to be home, being stuck in hospital for three weeks was not too fun.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to start the rehab process at the end of the month when I get my next X-rays, when I know more we can go from there.

FLASHBACK: Surfer Bede Durbidge at the Surfing Australia High Performance Centre at Kingscliff.

“We’ll see what happens over the next month or two — I will make a recovery some time soon hopefully.

“I am super motivated to get surfing and back into the gym.”

Durbidge took out the Pipeline Masters and the Triple Crown of Surfing in 2007, and finished 2008 ranked second behind Kelly Slater.

He said he was now focused on healing and could not remember spending so much time out of the water.

Bede Durbidge is pictured injured during a wipe-out in Round 3 at the Billabong Pipe Masters on Wednesday December 16, 2015.

“I can’t use my legs at the moment I’m pretty restricted to what I can do — I have never been away from the water for so long,” he said.

“It’s been a month since it happened, just even not being able to go into salt water has been weird.

Bede Durbidge. Picture: John Gass

“I just have to let it heal properly, you only get one shot at healing it right.

“You have to let all the pins and plates and bones mend.

“I can’t do too much at the moment because it hurts to stay in the chair too long because of the pressure it puts on the pelvis but I try to get out once a day for about two hours.”