The Mailing Room are proud to support Welsh adaptive surfer Llywelyn ‘Sponge’ Williams as he competes on the European and World Tour and grows adaptive surfing across the UK. Llywelyn’s journey is an inspiring one and his drive to push himself and his sport to new heights led us to partnering with him as well as supporting this year’s Welsh Adaptive Surf Championships which you can read about here.

After losing his right leg at 16 when he was hit by a car while skateboarding at home in Abersoch, North Wales, Llywelyn threw himself back into the water as soon as he could and ever since has dedicated himself to improving his riding. His long-term goal is to win a World Title, compete for Wales in the 2028 Paralympics and as current Welsh champion, European Tour leader and this year’s finalist in the Worlds he is well on track making those dreams a reality.

We caught up with Llywelyn between surf sessions at his home beaches around Abersoch to get an insight into his journey, his contest progress so far this year and his aspirations for the future.

Sponge, thanks for your time. Jumping straight in at the deep end, what drew you back to surfing after your accident? How does surfing make you feel physically and mentally?

As I was waking up from my coma my parents kept telling me I had lost a leg so by the time I was fully back I had accepted I had one leg. While in the hospital my friends had decorated my room with beach and surfing pictures along with filling the room with ‘Sex Wax’ (a surf wax for your surfboard!) air fresheners. So felt I was being brought straight back into surfing. I remember feeling as I wasn’t too bothered about anything else but getting back into the water, so the training began with trying to lift 1kg dumbbells, sitting up straight on a chair and building my weight back up.
As soon as I got back into the water, I felt alive and driven to make surfing my way of life.

Moving from ‘freesurfing’ to competing is something you’ve moved into over the last few years, how did you get into the contest side of surfing?

2015 was the first ever Adaptive Surfing Championships that was held in La Jolla, California. I saw the pictures and was blown away to know there’s more adaptive surfers around. I then heard that surfing was on the list to be part of the Olympics in 2020 so I got buzzed and sat down with Sarah (Llywelyn’s partner) and we wrote a post on social media. Soon after Ben from Surfability got in contact and arranged a meeting with the WSF (Welsh Surf Federation). Within 2 weeks I was flying out to represent Wales in the ISA World Adaptive Championships in California! It was such an amazing experience and pleasure to meet more adaptive surfers from around the world. It instantly felt like a family, and I was hooked. From then we heard about the other events, and we started planning our year around the competitions.

How has this year gone for you in the water (freesurfing and contest)?

This year has gone amazingly. From hitting the pillar at Pismo Beach a day before the World Championship started, losing a fin, then needing to get it repaired that day and using different fins I made it through to the final but then lost my 1st place in the world through interference in the last 3 minutes. We then headed to Hawaii where the waves weren’t that great, but I still dominated throughout the competition to again lose by 0.3 in the last 30 seconds of the final that placed me 2nd. We then flew back home to have a week to arrange the Welsh Championships where I placed 1st, followed by winning the English Championships a week later. Then it was over to Spain where I got another 1st. Now getting fit to fly out on the 23rd of August to another competition down in Anglet in the South of France to warm up before heading to the US Open on the 3rd of September for the final stop of the World Tour!

Congratulations! What a year so far! So along with sweeping up as many events as possible what are your long-term goals (competitions, Olympics 2028, etc.)?

Thanks! My goal is to help build the adaptive surfing community and yes, to bring the gold home to Wales from the World Championship and the Paralympics!

What about big wave surfing, I heard a rumour that this is something you are interested in? What does that mean, tell us more…

Yeah, I am super keen to try and get myself into the big waves and I am hoping to be able to have a year out of working full time to concentrate more on my surfing so I can progress further by being somewhere with more waves than we have here in Wales! This January I’m hoping to start off over in Hawaii to give Pipeline (world renowned big-wave location) a go and there also a big wave competition up in Santa Cruz, California that I will be also trying to get to.

Wow, we can’t wait to see the images from that! As a whole, how do you see adaptive surfing growing in Wales and across the world?

Adaptive surfing is growing each year we head out to the World Championship in California. In 2019 we had 20 here for the Welsh event and the same again in 2022. It was hard for many to travel with costs and visas this year, but in the 20 we had there were 10 new athletes that hadn’t been to the 2019 event. I’m hoping for the 2023 event it will be in the 40s that and we may be able to use both sides of the pool (Surf Snowdonia wavepool) or extend the event to three or four days.

Fantastic, well we can’t wait to see what the future holds for you and the sport. Before you go feel free to give a shout out to other sponsors that make the sport possible.

As its difficult for everyone to find sponsorship to get themselves to these events I have started a brand called Hopalong Clothing that I am aiming by 2025 to be a brand that can hopefully sponsor other adaptive surfers or anyone with a disability to go and do the sports they love without having to worry about government funding or looking any further for sponsorships.

Thanks Sponge, and good luck again for your contests coming up!
We will continue to support Llywelyn as he trains and competes and will be posting regular updates on our website so make sure to check back here over the coming months.