TEAM ROSTER AND BIOS
Who's representing your country?
Select any country name to view their team roster and learn more about our competing athletes.
England
DIVISION:
Stephen Lightbown
  • Age / 43
  • Born / Bristol
  • Resides in / Bristol
  • Favorite surf break / Perranporth
  • Board / Skindog
  • Hobbies / I'm a yoga instructor and published poet
I've been surfing for only two years and took up the sport aged 41, 25 years after my accident. I've spent the past two years wondering why I didn't find this amazing sport sooner. 
England
DIVISION:
Hannah Dines
  • Age / 29
  • Born / Glasgow
  • Resides in / Glasgow
  • Favorite surf break / Caswell Bay, Wales
  • Board / Spike's yellow 6 handle infinity prone board
  • Sponsors / none...yet...but big thanks to Surfability UK and Team England
  • Biggest Achievement / Longest consecutive training days and cumulative hours in the sea of any athlete supported by Surfability CIC in 2021
  • Hobbies / fast, furious sports
"Hannah Dines is an athlete, writer and activist with cerebral palsy and went to Rio 2016 Paralympic Games with the Great British Cycling team. She has considered herself a "surfer of tarmac" for many years due to the wobbly nature of her two land-based disciplines, frame running and trike racing. Disaster struck when she didn't make the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics and received a new and scary diagnosis. She jumped in the sea where an adaptive surfing club, Surfability UK, taught her that sliding down the "hills of the sea" (waves) were very like racing downhill on her trike. Whether therapy or sport, surfing has allowed her competitive nature to return and she's made it onto the English team for her first Surfing World Champs as an assisted prone athlete. She'd like to point out she's actually Scottish but was born in England, was raised/lives in Glasgow and has a Welsh granddad, too, though no Irish relatives that she knows about. Mostly, she is hoping that Scotland will be ready to accept adaptive surfing representation soon and is sad that they aren't ready yet. Worlds is critical for Hannah, to get back to doing what she loves- performing under pressure in challenging conditions, competing at a high level and using the healthy years she has left to make the most of her body. She thanks both Surfability and Team England for allowing her to explore this new, wet sport that feels both like she is inside a washing machine and also like she has been given a new lease of life."
England
DIVISION:
Andy Guy
  • Age / 37
  • Born / Bovey Tracey
  • Resides in / Bovey Tracey
  • Favorite surf break / Fistral Beach
  • Board / N/A
  • Sponsors / N/A
  • Biggest Achievement / 5th place in English Adaptive open
  • Hobbies / Wheelchair Rugby, table tennis
I'm a Kitesurfer come surfer after my Spinal injury. 
England
DIVISION:
Oliver Vaughan-jones
  • Age / 39
  • Born / St David’s
  • Resides in / St David’s
  • Favorite surf break / Traethmawr
  • Board / The one I’m on!
  • Sponsors / Arcticfox Adaptive
  • Biggest Achievement / 2nd in French ampsurf 2022
  • Hobbies / Design and engineering, building stuff, adaptive skiing and surfing! Travel and people closely behind
hello 

I love being in the water or up in the snowy mountains. I find the water just amazing theropy and I rediscovered a way to surf again 2 years ago by renting boards and crawling out in to the sea. After doing this solo It was by chance meeting that I was informed their was such a thing as adapted/para surfing . It was amazing to find this out, a whole world of para surfers! 


I became seriously unwell over 14 years ago and spent many years stuck in bed having to be fully cared for in some way or another. Lost of speech, power and movement and cognitive issues really left me visualising the sports and adventures I used to do before I contracted my neurological disease. 

I began to reemerge into the world and with the opportunity to have a power chair I began to travel, using the train the train to get around the Uk before adventuring abroad including trying adaptive skiing. At the same time I also wanted to recapture my design and engineering background and with much work and sacrifice over the last 4 years  I have designed developed and produced my just about to launch my first adaptive ski rig. Something which I Started with a makeshift workshop next to my sick bed. My adaptive ski company is called Arcticfox Adaptive.

In a similar path I finally got in the waves about two years ago and developed a technique to ride the waves like I used to! Or at least try ! It became a serious addiction this year after entering the English open and realising there is an amazing vibe and world of adaptive athletes, families, coaches and support. The hook has been sunk, after another contest in France I’m on my way to California for my first time! I have been permanently buzzing since I made the team and genuinely keeps me going through some of the severe nuero pain I have. My surfing is developing each time I ride and I’m in that Green again baby!

Life goals for the next month: Eat, sleep,surf, repeat. 
England
DIVISION:
David Lewis
  • Age / 44
  • Born / Fleet, England
  • Resides in / Fleet, England
  • Favorite surf break / Peniche
  • Board / 8ft Softtop
  • Sponsors / None as yet
  • Biggest Achievement / None as yet
  • Hobbies / Visually Impaired Cricket
After recieving my Sight Loss and Retinitis Pigmentosa diagnosis in 2017 i was lost for a year or so. In 2019 I found that I was classifiable for Visually Impaired sports and started to train with Surrey Visually Impaired Cricket. A lot of the players enjoyed cricket for fun but also played other visually impaired sports at international level. This encouraged me to think about the sports that I enjoyed as a hobby before sight loss - surfing was my favorite. I reasearched a bit and found out about the VI categories in Surfing and the reached out to Surfing England at Surfing England to see how I could get envolved. Since then I have competed at 3 Englis Adaptive Opens, last years ISA world chamipinships, and this years HASC competition in Hawaii and the US Open in Oceanside. I surf as often as I can in Cornwall.
England
DIVISION:
Martin Pollock
  • Age / 38
  • Born / Mullion, Cornwall, England.
  • Resides in / Mullion, Cornwall, England.
  • Favorite surf break / Hanalai Bay, Kauai, HI
  • Board / Firewire Sweet Potato 6'2
  • Biggest Achievement / 2021, 2022 English Open, 2nd PSK
  • Hobbies / Living
I'm a British Army veteran. I learnt to surf as part of my rehabilitation following injuries sustained in Afghanistan.  I learnt with Operation Surf, a non profit based in San Luis Obispo, CA. 
England
DIVISION:
Melissa Reid
  • Age / 32
  • Born / Porthtowan
  • Resides in / Porthtowan
  • Favorite surf break / Nias
  • Board / Dark arts Dadbod
  • Sponsors / Greenover, Adams surfboards, hueys wax
  • Biggest Achievement / 3x World champion
  • Hobbies / Surfing, triathlon, skating
Visually impaired surfer from Cornwall.  paralympic triathlete representing Great Britain in Rio and Tokyo. After a back injury making triathlon more challenging I got back into surfing.  currently the double world champion looking to retain my title this year.  min the process of doing my Isa coaching so that I can give more back to the sport. 
England
DIVISION:
Spike Kane
  • Age / 59
  • Born / Liverpool
  • Resides in / Liverpool
  • Favorite surf break / Queens Hawaii
  • Board / Infinity Prone and Mac Waveski
  • Sponsors / None
  • Biggest Achievement / USA National Champion 2016
  • Hobbies / Sailing, 4x4 off road adventures, travel,
I have a son, David, who lives in Germany. He is a professor at the university of Stuttgart He, his partner Julia and my Grandson Charlie came to the ISA 2020 in La Jolla to watch me compete.  My mum turned 92 in November and still lives in the house I was born in in Liverpool.  I am one of 8 children she had and raised with my father.  I started surfing while working at the Liverpool Water Spots Centre in the early 80's. While working there I qualified as a senior coach in several paddle sport disciplines working with the then Olympic Conoe/kayak coach.  I came to America's Pacific Northwest in 1988 to lead sea kayak and sailing expeditions in the Puget Sound on the Canadian border in the San Juan Islands. I fell in love with Washington State and made it my home.  I trained in Seattle and earned a degree in marine carpentry to become a Shipwright (wooden boat builder) I did this until I was injured in 2005. I have been competing in adaptive surfing events since 2013 and involved in adaptive surfing since 2003, before I was injured.  I was awarded the Surfing England "Global Ambassador Award" for contributions and the positive representation of English surfing within the international community. I was awarded the Life Rolls On athlete of the year in 2015 I was recently (October 2021) given the Ocean Of Possibilities Award from accessurf Hawaii for contributions to the global adaptive surfing community.  During international surf competitions in California, my house in Vista becomes base camp for many athletes traveling from overseas with 25 or more people and up to 10 nations all under one roof. I have a Poodle Service Dog named Buttons after the legendary "Buttons Kaluhiokalani" From Hawaii.  I have represented my country at every ISA World Para Championship. I have placed 5th every year. 
England
DIVISION:
Zoe Smith
  • Age / 41
  • Born / Bournemouth
  • Resides in / Bournemouth
  • Favorite surf break / Bournemouth
  • Board / 614 Flamingo
  • Sponsors / 614 shapes
  • Biggest Achievement / 3rd in AASP, British Para Stand 2 Gold
  • Hobbies / Travelling, walking my dogs, beachcombing, surfing
I've been part of the England surf team since September 21. I became an amputee in 2015 after a car accident. Surfing and the adaptive community has really given me a whole new lease for life and I love being in the ocean and testing my physical limits and capabilities. Since joining the England team I have travelled to Hawaii with members of the squad and Oceanside to compete in the AASP tour. I also came silver in the Welsh championships and came gold in the womens para stand in the English adaptive open. My dream is to eventually medal at the ISA Worlds 
England
DIVISION:
Mark Hagger
  • Age / 48
  • Born / Bournemouth
  • Resides in / Bournemouth
  • Favorite surf break / Kirra
  • Board / Anything I can hold on too! Float Boards
  • Sponsors / Sorted Surf Shop-Shukidog Surf
  • Biggest Achievement / x2English X2 Welsh Open
  • Hobbies / Just surfing now, need to look at new ones.
I have surfed since I was 14. Surfed lots of cool places around the world and stopped when Multiple Sclerosis kicked in and I could'nt stand up anymore. Chose to forget about surfing for 10 years, even went on Honeymoon to California and did't even get wet. Friends and family kept on trying to get me back in again. Didn't work until my friend at a surf school got me in the water again. Never swollowed so much water the first session. Fell back in love with it again and haven't looked back. I might be on my tummy, but it is always over head! 
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