When the action gets underway in the Jim Beam Surftag Industry Challenge at Sydney’s Curl Curl beach this Friday all those entered will be happy to be out of the office, in the water and doing what they love most – surfing.
Happiest of all will no doubt be former world top ten surfer Richie Lovett - not because Lovett doesn’t enjoy working but because he is able to compete at all.
When the affable northern beaches local paddles out to surf for his team, accessory company FCS, he will be in a competition singlet for the first time since his life was changed forever in December 2005.
That was when he was diagnosed with Clear Cell Chondrosarcoma in his right leg, a malignant type of cancer that if left untreated would prove to be fatal. Several operations and months and months of specialist treatment in the USA followed before Lovett could even return home.
From that point on surfing as he knew it, and his ten year career at the sport’s highest level, was over. But the sport has remained in his blood and just as he had to learn to walk properly again with the almost foot long prosthesis in place of the top half of his femur, Lovett learned to surf again.
“There was a time when the doctors said I’d never surf again,” Lovett recalls.
“Athletically, I know I’ll never be able to compete professionally again but the Jim Beam Surftag Industry Challenge is about getting out there with my mates and putting in.
“As tough as the past four years have been, it’s great because I now see the world through new eyes.”
Puts things in perspective a little bit doesn't it!
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