So Sponge, first of all massive congratulations from us here at The Mailing Room! ISA Para Surfing World Champion how does that feel to hear?!

Yeah, thank you! Oh, it was such a great feeling. I’ve been chasing it for six years and then getting the support from you guys (The Mailing Room) and getting the support from home and the support from Sarah on the beach it was just a magic feeling to get the gold after losing out in the last three minutes last year.

To give some background to our readers, it’s been a long road to winning this title and you have had a couple of heart-breaking near misses in the last few years – could you tell us a little about those and how that affected your preparation leading to this year’s contest?

Yeah so, I think I worked out I have been to 31 competitions in six years, and I have missed out on the podium once; that was the first competition in 2016. Then for the World’s I’ve always been there on the podium missing out by a few points, or one point even last year to Mono (Mark Mono Stewart – Australian legend and multiple world title winner), so yeah to actually get it this year and win four heats out of four and take home the gold was just a great feeling.

I just can’t believe there’s a world champion from Abersoch!

As you just said you won all four of your heats in the contest including the final, and in the heats leading up to the final you must have known you were in a strong position with your contest results prior already this year and that you were surfing really well. So how did you manage your pressure and expectation from yourself knowing that you had a real chance to win it this year?

Yeah, so from losing the last three minutes last year, I’ve actually been pushing myself to surf better and every time there are waves at home to just get out there in every condition and train hard and just keeping focus on it. And then going there this year I just had the drive and determination to actually get it because it felt so bad to lose it for an interference last year.
(Llywelyn missed out on the gold in 2021 in the last few minutes of the final due to an interference call which cost him the score that had him in the lead.)

From watching the final live you seemed so in control of the situation, you got some scores in the bank, dominated throughout the 20 minutes, and you never looked flustered. Did you have anything that you were telling yourself to help you stay calm or did it feel second nature after surfing contests for so long now?

Yeah, because I have surfed so many contests and also I have had three coaching lessons by Llewelyn ‘Whit’ Walker who is an Olympic coach from South Africa, and he’d never worked with anyone in Para surf before and I have never had a coach before, we were trying to work together and see what would work and what can work for me. And he just told me to, before a competition, just keep telling yourself in your head “you’re going win, you’re going to win, you’re going to win” and just to keep that mentality through the whole thing so it didn’t really get into any nerves really. But I was super nervous through the whole heat, but I just had that in my head, so I just remember win, win, win. So yeah.

Yeah, that must have been invaluable to have a coach with that standing for that moment and it must be incredible to work with him.

In one of our earlier articles we’ve spoken about Mark Mono Stewart who’s a bit of a legend of the sport and you’ve mentioned him a few times today, coming up against him in the final must have been pretty daunting? How did it feel to get the best of him, you’ve obviously got massive respect for him but to finally beat him must have been a bit of a relief as well?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we’ve been competing around the world and when he came over to do the Europe tour in 2019 he beat me by a point in the Worlds, half a point in English and then around a point or something in Spanish again. So we’ve always been here or there, I’ve beat him in Bali and also in a few other few other comps, he’s beat me in a few comps, but just to get the ISA World Championship medal, that just topped it all off.

But working for the last six years from the first time I met him kind of thing he has taught me, and I’ve been watching him surfing and I’d be like “oh, okay, he can do that so why can’t I do that?” so I’ve been actually learning off him – and all these other surfers and different styles and what could actually happen.

Amazing. We saw the footage of your partner Sarah and your fellow Welsh competitors and friends and family on the beach celebrating when it was confirmed that you had won, but can you even describe how it felt when you heard that buzzer sound?

When I heard the buzzer I didn’t actually know I had won. I knew I was first at the time, but on the buzzer Mono caught wave and he rode it all the way into the beach. I had my mate on the pier that was telling me the scores all through the heat and I was looking at him and I was like: “What did he get? What did he get? Can I paddle in as the winner or not?”, and no one really knew because it didn’t post online or anything. So I was like “Oh, I’ve sort of got to go in now” and then I paddled and as soon as I got to the beach everyone started screaming and stuff and I was like “Yes!”.

So yeah, it was literally a buzzer better. He needed an eight-point-something and I think he got like a six or something like that. And I thought “Oh yes, finally!” And then everything just hit at once, it was great.

He definitely put you through it after the last few years and then having -that wait for the last wave score! It wasn’t easy to watch we have to say mate!

It’s been a few months now since the competition, can you give us a preview of what you’ve been up to and where you’ve been since then?

Yeah, so after the World Championships I went over to Hawaii for the Hale’iwa International Open Competition and then we stayed in Hawaii for two weeks. And after that we then flew to Indonesia to concentrate on surfing and training. So yeah, that’s what we’ve been doing since then, we’ve just been moving around Indonesia and surfing everywhere and getting some good waves and hopefully progressing my surfing because now the hard work starts because I need to keep the title.

And now you’ve got that World Title it’s almost harder to keep hold of it you are the man everyone is going to want to beat.

Yeah, exactly, so that’s why I’m here (Indonesia) really. Doing four months of going around surfing and getting the hours in and then home for the end of March I think for a few weeks. Then the first competition we’re going to is in Japan, I think I’m going do that one so that’s the end of April and then in May we’re going to Hawaii again for the first stop on the world tour.

As a high-performance athlete could you give us some background as to why it’s important for you to travel to these different locations and waves to train?

Yeah, so because there are new competitions popping up in different places around the world it’s obviously on different types of waves where if I’m at home through the summer it’s not really beneficial for surfing because it could be flat for three, four months and I can’t always drive to Surf Snowdonia and surf that same wave because it’s different from surfing in the ocean. So yeah, to take this four month trip this year after the worlds and travel around all these different waves and experience different crowds, different waves, it’s beneficial to be able to learn.

I’m certain I’ve never surfed waves like this before in my life, it’s absolutely insane!

Ready for the tour to start all over again in May?

Yeah, then after Japan it goes May – Hawaii, June we’ve got two in Costa Rica in the same week. So I’m working on a few things with Ampsurf to extend the tour schedule because we didn’t make the Paralympics, but now there’s two sports waiting till the end of the year to get the inclusion. So hopefully if we build the competition circuit across different continents and push towards the ISA and the Paralympic committee to accept surfing into Paralympics for Los Angeles 2028.

So hopefully we get the Paralympic committee to see that there is a structure in the adaptive surfing world before they take decision. So hopefully we’ll push it forward to LA’28.

Amazing, from everyone here at TMR congratulations again and good luck with everything this year Sponge!

And we will continue to follow Llywelyn’s progress this year as he pushes for another World Title and to get para surfing in the Paralympics for 2028