Young Shark Attack Amputee Survivor becomes Surf Champ
Young drama student Caleb Swanepoel, who lost his right leg in a shark attack last year in Buffel’s Bay, has dived straight back into the ocean and become a surf champion! Watch video below. The 21-year-old – from Prince Albert in the Karoo – was recently crowned South African disabled surfing champion, and is on his way to […]
Young drama student Caleb Swanepoel, who lost his right leg in a shark attack last year in Buffel’s Bay, has dived straight back into the ocean and become a surf champion! Watch video below.
The 21-year-old – from Prince Albert in the Karoo – was recently crowned South African disabled surfing champion, and is on his way to the world adaptive surfing championships! And what makes it even more remarkable is that Caleb had never been a surfer before his traumatic experience.
“It actually happened by chance,” he says. “I joined a group of coaches from high performance centres… That’s when I stood on a surf board for the first time… after my shark attack.”
Caleb is embracing and enjoying his “new life” and while the ocean may have taken his leg, he says “sometimes when I think about this journey and what it’s given me. It’s given me so much. It’s blessed me with so much.”
He attributes his success to a very loving and supportive circle of family, friends and community.
Caleb says he went back in the sea three weeks after his accident because he didn’t want the anxiety to build up, and jokes that “it is interesting to think I could get attacked again. I just hope it bites the right side and not the left!”