Surfers campaign for wheelchair access
Local resident, Wesley Smith, recently hosted a swim for his campaign, called Wheels on Waves, to attract sponsorship for beach wheelchairs nationwide.
LEGENDS in South Africa’s adaptive surfing scene, big wave surfer and amputee, Donovan Kanes from Cape Town and adaptive surfing coach Wesley Smith from Durban are using the sport to raise awareness.
The two have joined forces to raise funds for beach wheelchairs and awareness about beach accessibility by doing a charity swim in Amanzimtoti.
“Our goal is to get at least two beach wheelchairs at every beach in Durban,” said Berea resident, Wesley.
Beach wheelchairs are equipped with large, wide wheels which can roll across the sand without sinking. They usually require users to be accompanied by someone pushing them and allow the differently-abled to swim safely.
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“The wheelchairs are the only way that someone who is differently-abled can enjoy the beach. The joy that I have seen people who are differently-abled get from the simple pleasure of being at the beach has inspired me to push for beach wheelchair accessibility,” said Wesley.
The intrepid Donovan and Wesley, swam 3km from Amanzimtoti Beach to Pipeline Beach. “The event was awesome. We raised R17 000 and will be purchasing a beach wheelchair from a local manufacturer soon, to place on a local beach,” said Wesley.
“Some hardened lifeguards were visibly brought to tears by the tenacity and courage of our swimmers,” he said.
The campaign was hosted by professional sports commentator in the making, 14-year-old quadriplegic Reece Smith, who they are also assisting with a fundraising campaign for his YouTube channel Rolling With Reece.
“Lots of people showed up to support our event. It was lots of fun,” said Reece.
According to his father, Wesley, Reece has been commentating since he was little, “This boy has always been commentating, when we would watch the games with him, every time a player would score he would scream goal!”
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Reece is an aspiring sports commentator with big dreams.
“This past few months on YouTube I’ve been doing book reviews and I would like to do more sports commentary for the blind. I would also like to get into teaching the differently-abled how to still enjoy video games and one day I hope I will be interviewing famous adaptive sports people,” he said.
The Grade 9 learner is a sports enthusiast and enjoys playing video games,.
“My favourite team is and always has been Liverpool and my favourite video games are FIFA and Call of Duty,” said Reece.
Access for the differently-abled, elderly and temporarily injured to the ocean is the first part of this initiative. The aim of the campaign, called Wheels on Waves is to attract permanent sponsorship and management of beach wheelchairs nationwide.
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