Brad Smeele: The ride that changed my life

Brad Smeele was a world champion wakeboarder at the top of his game. His life was an endless summer of travel, competing, modelling, building and meeting women when a catastrophic accident changed his life and left him a quadriplegic in 2014. Brad talks about the astonishingly raw and honest book about his journey – Owning It – The Ride That Changed My Life. The mental and physical challenges of losing mobility, the realities of life without the use of limbs, his sex-life, what it looks like now and why he included so much of it in the book, the darkest thoughts he had – and how he overcame them, and his incredible path to happiness, fulfilment and being present. And how he got there. This is a chat that really left us speechless. Brad suffered just about the worst possible thing that could happen to a young man in the prime of his life – and has found a way to turn it into a positive. It certainly put our own struggles into perspective and we both left the episode feeling incredibly inspired. Show notes | Episode 95 | Brad Smeele 2:03 A busy week for Brad Smeele: the book launch, media appearances, and going head-to-head with Ross Taylor 5:00 Sex (and other reflections on the book) 11:42 Painting a picture of pre-accident Brad Smeele 21:59 A pause for breakdown on naming conventions for wakeboard tricks 24:29 A preamble to the accident: opening up, shitting yourself, and having real conversations with your mates 31:40 The accident 40:16 The initial recovery post-accident 53:12 Steve loops back to sex chat 55:36 Finding inspiration from tragedy: transitioning back to life in New Zealand 1:13:33 Helping other people deal with their shit 1:17:46 Owning It: the process of writing, editing, and launching the book (and Steve triples down on sex chat!) 1:22:30 Looking back at the accident 1:26:05 Last words from Steven, Seamus and BradSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.