episode 20: MELISSA REID, PRO SURFER

11 April 2024
Photos used with permission from Melissa Reid
I sat down with Melissa to talk about her experience as a professional athlete. She initially competed for Great Britain as a para triathlete, winning a bronze medal at the Paralympics in Rio and has successfully transitioned as a pro surfer with three world championship titles already to her name. In this raw and candid conversation, Melissa shares with us how losing it all propelled her into a pro athlete career she hadn't seen for herself and how an injury took her back to her true passion. She shared her honest experience and views as an adaptive athlete and the pitfalls she's had to face for not being disabled "enough". For anyone considering a career as a pro athlete, Melissa also gave us a major insight she wishes she's known when she started her pro career.
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BEST PLACE TO FOLLOW MELISSA AND LEARN MORE ABOUT HER:

www.melissareid.uk

SHOWNOTES:

* Music by Julius H. from Pixabay
* Featured in this podcast: Melissa Reid * Mentioned in this episode: * Support us making this independent podcast by becoming one of our Patreon Members

TRANSCRIPT

I'm Charlaine Jannerfeldt, and you're listening to About that outdoor job.

" Ah, the ocean, when I get in, it's kind of my freedom. It's where I don't feel like I have a handicap compared to other people. "

This is Melissa Reid, pro surfer, three time surfing world champion, and Britain's only ever surfing world champ. She's also a Paralympic medalist. And yeah, surfing isn't part of the Paralympics yet. So that bronze medal she earned at the Rio 2016 Games was in a completely different discipline, para triathlon. For nearly a decade she competed for Great Britain and won multiple European and World para triathlon titles.

To say that Melissa is an outstanding athlete is an understatement, and we could be excused for assuming that doing sports must have been her happy place as a child, but the reality, it isn't quite that.​

" I think I was about eight and my dad wanted surfing lessons, and so he used me as an excuse. And it was actually in the village that I live now, and I remember having this little green board and standing up, and it's just, I don't know how you describe the first time you stand up, you kind of feel like you're invincible. Um, and I was just hooked. It was the only sport I was any good at as a child. I was rubbish at sport. "

Melissa was born with a visual impairment. She has no vision on her right eye, and a pinhole of vision from her left.

" All school sports involve hand eye coordination, and if you can't see a ball coming towards your face, you're really, really bad at catching, kicking, and throwing. So, I just didn't excel at school. I didn't excel at school sports, but I did very well at surfing. Even when there was no adaptations for being blind or visually impaired, it was still something I could do as well as everyone else. "

As you said just before, if you can't see, it can be really difficult to catch something, whether a ball or a wave, right? Can you tell us what your experience then was learning to surf? What was that like? 

" So for me, it was kind of feeling for the waves. You know, you feel that suction coming out before you get that push through. So it's kind of building on your other senses to get that. And I think just doing it from such a young age. We did a lot of life saving training to be lifeguards, so my water knowledge was really, really high. So having a good understanding of what the water does and why it does it, I don't need to see what it's doing to kind of know what it's doing. The sixth sense! And I genuinely think to a degree, you either have it or you don't have it. And I think it's hard skill to learn and the only way you're gonna learn it is if you're gonna spend 24/7 studying it, being in the water, figuring it out. There's so much to it.​ "

Surfing became Melissa's happy place, and she found something she was really good at. I mean, really good at. So how come she only turned pro in 2018 at the age of 28? What detour in life got her into para triathlon?  

" It's such a backward story. Um, I wanted to be a professional surfer and a lifeguard growing up, and when it kind of got to the age where I could be a beach lifeguard, I was offered the job and somebody reported me to the head office that I couldn't see, and it was taken away. Um, to say I threw a temper tantrum would be an understatement of the year, and I was just super, super upset. I just remember sat, crying, going, "Wow, I've worked all my life for this, and I'm now not allowed to do it, even though, big head as it sounds, I'm better than everyone else doing it". I was offered a job, clearly I was capable, and it was taken away purely due to my vision, and I just couldn't face going in the sea, couldn't face being surrounded by people which were getting the opportunities that I wasn't allowed. And I did become quite angry. And my dad was training for an Ironman and he made me train with him, um, to get rid of some anger. And he was like "I'm really sorry. I thought you'd be able to do everything you wanted to do in life, but clearly I was wrong." He was like "Maybe you should use your disability to your advantage, and you know, instead of pretending it's not there, see what you can do with it." And so I became a professional triathlete.

Melissa's lifeguard training meant her swimming, and her running were already good, and as she couldn't drive, her dad had gotten her a road bike she used to independently get around, so biking was covered. So she was doing all three of these disciplines, but just not together. She started training, and it turned out her times were really quite good. But nonetheless, she still had to get over her reluctance to be labeled disabled and be willing to accept someone else's help. 

4:38
" I'd been approached to compete in swimming and triathlons as a teenager, very adamant I could see, and that I was not disabled and I didn't want any help from anyone in the world and I was very, very stubborn. So I just contacted them and said "Yeah, do you know what? I'd like to give it a go. Can I do this event?". And then I rocked up to an event with a person I'd known for three weeks. We'd been on the bike, I think maybe twice. I did an absolute stalk of Cornwall to find someone who was fast enough to race with me. Found out that she was going to a local event and just turned up to that event. It was like "Do you fancy guiding me in three weeks time at a world series?" and she was like "Oh!". And we sat down, we talked. Did a couple of sessions and, like, the rest is pretty much history. We came second. Like, yeah, this is all right. Let's see what happens out of this. And it was a 10 year career of going to the Paralympics. ​"

Melissa's performances got her onto the Paralympic team for the 2016 Rio Games. In the last 400 meters of her race, she was in fourth place, so it became a sprint finish for the bronze. She fell over the line, her adversary fell before the line. The bronze was hers. And two years later, she was making headlines again, but this time for winning the first ever visually impaired women's world championship in California.

Talk us through your journey, Melissa. How did you find yourself competing at the AmpSurf ISA World Parasurfing Championships in 2018?​

" Again, it's where the case of one door closes, another door opens. Um, the year after Rio, I suffered quite a serious back injury, which put me out for a year. Um, and I wasn't allowed to run or cycle and I'd been in chats with my physio of going insane about not competing or being able to do anything. And he was like, well, you can get in the sea, you can surf a little bit, just, you know, keep it small, keep it moderate. You can't cycle because of the position that I was in causing too much compression on the nerves. And running again, the impact was causing too much compression on the nerves, but I was allowed to swim and surf. And I saw that there was a local adaptive event. To be honest, I just wanted to make some friends and be sociable. My whole training was my social life as well. Lost all of that instantly. I was so grumpy. So I'd gone to this event and it turned up I'd not really surfed for about five or six years. Gone in the water maybe two or three times a year just for And I rocked up and I got out of my first heat and the team manager was like "Do you want to come to the world championships with us?" I was like, um, "Sure. Where is it?".  He was like "Oh, it's in California here.". And I was like "Oh yeah, my best friend lives out there in America.". I was like "Yeah, I'll just stay with her. Be a great holiday.". Literally not thinking anything of it. And at that point, the sport was so small that there wasn't even guaranteed to be women's divisions because we're kind of rolling into 2018 at this point. I was like "Yeah, okay." so I booked my flight out to California mainly to see my friend thinking I'd get one heat at this event. Ended up coming fifth in the men's and winning the world championships for the women's. "

Wow. That's quite the result.​

Yeah! Yeah! I mean, I didn't think I was going to win. I genuinely just thought I was going to go surf for 20 minutes and then catch up with my triathlon friends. So yeah, I wasn't really expecting that to happen but it opened up doors which I'm really, really grateful for. It was always my passion, always the thing that I loved. "

You must have been elated. The British press must have gone wild. 

" Oh, yeah, I know, but I had to hide it because I'd been signed off sick from triathlon, and I was like "Oh, no, what am I gonna do?". So I blocked them all on every platform, didn't publicise anything and then CNN did an interview and it went all over Twitter and then I got an email basically saying I was in serious trouble, needed to make decisions. "

8:21
Melissa actually continued to train and compete for both triathlon and surfing for some time, even taking part in the Tokyo Games. After that though, she fully dedicated herself to her professional surfing career.  

If you don't mind, let's take a minute to dive into the adaptive surfing competition world. How does it differ?

Yeah, so for my division particularly, we have what's called a guide, a spotter, a set of eyes, however you want to describe them. And they're in the water to aid you in whatever way suits you best through verbal commands. They're not allowed to touch you, but they can give you verbally whatever you kind of request or require. A lot of nations have people that they train with all year. Unfortunately, we've got no funding or support in England. So I will just get given someone at an event.  Um, so the communication is super important. Quite lucky that I can make decisions for myself. If I was less knowledgeable of the ocean it would be a huge detriment to my surfing career. Um, and I mean, it is to an extent, but  at the moment I can make do.  And then with the other divisions you've got from total paraplegics, so you've got prone assist, which is basically they will get pushed into a wave, and then someone will catch them and then push them back out, and they lie prone on the board. Got a normal prone unassist where they can paddle into the waves, but they're still lying down. Then you've got kneeling who usually is severed above the knee, double amputees, triple amputees, incomplete spinal cord. So there's movement or dramatic limb losses where they would have to stand with a prosthetic. And then you've got below and above the knee amputees who compete in two separate divisions. You've got below the knee, above the knee, and then you've got arms, which again is from paralysis or missing limbs. And then you've got totally blind and visually impaired. "

Surfing's been put forward to go to the LA Paralympics in 2028, but at the time of recording, no confirmation has been received yet. What do you think, Melissa, being included in the Paralympics would do for the sport of surfing? 

I think it would really push surfing to the next level and I think it would make it look more like a professional sport rather than an amateur sport. If you speak to anyone in a sporting background of a stereotypical sport, surfing is a hippy dippy sport where everyone gets stoned. And it would be really, really nice to change that perspective of surfing and actually be respected as an athlete. Um, and I do think that the Paralympics would do that for the sport. And I think it would also show that you can do extreme sports as a disabled person. It would be the only extreme sport in the summer games, which I think would just be amazing. "

And Melissa's also taking on her own campaign to make adaptive surfing more inclusive. And unsurprising to anyone who gets to know Melissa, she's doing it boldly and by taking on the big guys. 
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" I entered Boardmasters last year, which is an able bodied event to try and promote adaptive surfing and inclusivity. "

Just a side note to highlight how big of a deal this was. The Boardmaster Surf Open is not only one of the biggest surf competitions in the UK, but has also been part of the World Surf League event schedule for the past nine years and is a European qualifying series event. 

You said that the Boardmaster is an able bodied event. So what does that mean for you? 

" I wasn't allowed a set of eyes for the event, because it was deemed unfair on the rest of the participants. Even though they could see, and I couldn't, and actually the participants were like "What?". They were like, "This is stupid. You should be allowed someone to sit next to you and just give you as much feedback as what we get." But to be fair, the commentator knew kind of what was going on and he was commentating on the ocean probably significantly more than any other heat. So I was listening in to him and then kind of knowing the beach fairly well."  

12:15
But a spotter doesn't only give you info about the waves, right? There's another bit of critical info you need when competing.

You have what's called a priority system, so if you catch a wave you go into last priority. And I think I was probably third or fourth priority and I was quite far down the beach and had gone for this wave and had caught the wave. And luckily the person who had priority over me kind of apparently looked like they were going to go for the wave, but saw that I was on it and pulled off. Um, so by not knowing that she was actually there and she had priority because I can't see the priority board at all. I was just going for the waves and was like "Well, whatever. Like, you won't give me a set of eyes, how am I supposed to know I've got priority? If I drop in on you, whatever, that's your problem now." And actually, it kind of put me third in my heat and I was quite happy with not coming last in an able bodied world circuit. I didn't make it through to the next round but I didn't come last. And for me not to come last in an able bodied event at a high standard was great, even if I did almost get an interference. "

You actually gained the support from the other surfers competing when it came to having a spotter. Did that make it feel like some kind of a win for inclusivity? 

It's so funny, you know, your competitors are like "Of course you need someone in the water with you. You're blind, you can't see two feet in front of you." but yet an organisation is like "Well, no, it's a disadvantage to everyone else if you've got someone in the water.". But it's just two different perspectives. And actually, I think I personally would much rather have respect from other athletes than I would from a suited and booted person in an office. "

And inclusivity isn't the only barrier professional adaptive surfers face. ​

" Every disability has its own issues. Some can be logistics and some can be financial. I mean, barriers, if you're an amputee, a prosthetic to be able to surf, you're looking at least GBP 10, 000. If you're visually impaired, you need someone to take you to the beach. And if you can't get to the beach, you can't get in the sea. If you're in a wheelchair, you need someone to go in the water with you, so if you don't have the support of someone coming in the water with you, you don't get to surf. I mean, I've surfed in the UK twice since November because I can't get anywhere. Um, and for me, if I wanted to go to a beach, which I know I could go to probably five days a week, would cost me GBP 150 in a taxi, which is 20 minutes down the road, which, if you're able bodied, is going to, what, cost you five pounds in fuel. Um, so yeah, my biggest barrier is transport. I'm not allowed on public transport with surfboards. So then I can't go to the wave pools because I can't take a board with me, which is always super frustrating. I mean, it would be lovely to get sponsorship and funding for surfing and for the athletes. You know, in England, we had three medalists last year at the world championships and there's no other category in surfing where we do that as a nation and yet with the ones that don't get funded, there's been no training this year. Our event was in November last year and we've still not met with a coach or had any training or coaching and we're now pretty much in April. I mean, we have been told not to give any negative publicity about our governing body for lack of support and funding and I said "Well, unfortunately, I am not giving negative feedback. I'm being honest.". If you were to look at the able-bodied side, if you've got three word titles, you've got a signed contract with some pretty big names. It would be amazing if we could see adaptive surfing getting to that level. I mean, I've tried to get sponsorship. I had a good contract last year, which really helped. Um, it hasn't come through this year at the moment, which is super disappointing. So that's put a hold onto my season drastically. My personal issue for sponsorship is the feedback I get is "You don't look disabled enough for us to sponsor you. You're not aesthetically what we're looking for because it's not obvious.". I mean, you tell someone who's got three world titles that. So I set my own coaching company up so that I could just work and try and fund it that way. I coach swimming and surfing. I specialize in open water swimming. I freelance to a swim school and write their programs and coach for them. And I do public speaking as well to try and cover life and to try and fund a season. "

And though surfing is Melissa's passion, she's candid that a professional career hasn't been the easiest route to navigate.​

" I was having a chat with my best friend, Zoe, who competes in the Below the Knee division. I said "This is probably the first year I miss triathlon." In triathlon I could train on my own and I could get the work done, but surfing at this level, I need assistance to get to the water. And it's the first time since competing in surfing where I felt my disability is actually holding me back. 

And what's the one thing you believe has helped you not throw in the towel and just keep going? 

" I just really like proving people wrong. If someone says I can't do something, I'm going to go out and do it regardless of whether it's right or wrong. It is just my mentality. "

Part of the mission of the series Women and Outdoor Jobs is to share the stories and experiences of women like Melissa who've made the outdoors their living so that women who want to achieve that for themselves, they can benefit from their learnings and advice.  

What's some of the best advice you've received that's helped you through your career?

17:13
" I mean, I'm not very good at listening to advice. Trying to think how to phrase the one. Um, when one door closes, another one opens. And at that time, I think I may have used a few profanities to people. Because at that moment in time, you don't see it. All you see is something being slammed in your face and you not getting your own way, essentially. But when you look back, you're like, okay, that has happened for a reason. I'm in a better place. "

So today, with the benefit of hindsight, what advice would you give your younger self?

" I think I would just say, follow your heart and do what makes you happy. Don't do what's going to make somebody else happy. I think it's difficult, isn't it? You can kind of do something that you think you want to do, but you're not 100 percent sure. For me, triathlon was never something that was really on the cards, and it was never something I was overly passionate about. I was just very good at it and it was a good distraction from what I was not able to do at the time. Um, but I wouldn't say it was the thing that I wanted to do with my life. It turned out to be a good job where I got paid to travel the world. And then when you've got a good job, it kind of makes it easier. Difficult to come out of that, it becomes your identity. And making the choice to retire fully from triathlon was quite a big choice because I generally thought that that was who I was. Like, I thought I was a triathlete and no one would respect me if I wasn't that person anymore, but it was just having some really good friends around saying "Oh, no, actually, you're so much more than that and you can give so much more than that." So you just need to do what's right for you and ignore what everyone else is telling you."  

And what key piece of advice would you want to share with anyone considering becoming a pro athlete?

"My honest advice would be don't do it for money. Like, unfortunately, I don't know what it's like for the rest of the world for women's sport, but for this country, you're not going to make a living from being a female elite athlete. So if you're going to be an athlete, you do it for the love and the passion for it. And you then build on a career that can involve that sport later on in life. Use it to get your coaching qualifications, use it to start a business, use it to start a community interest company to get the next generation involved. And I wish someone had told me that when I was in the first stages of my career. "

Being a professional athlete and competing at a really high level. Is usually demanding. Do you do things differently now with your surfing than when you were training for triathlon? 

" Like triathlon, I was so consumed by the sport that nothing else mattered in my entire life. That was it. My job, my life was focusing on that. Um, and then having a couple of things happening throughout that time, which kind of brought reality a little bit closer to home, made me rethink a lot of my choices. A lot of things I'd missed out on, a lot of relationships which had broken down because I'd put triathlon above absolutely everything and my goal for surfing was I'd never ever do that. And surfing is very, very important to me. Competing is important. Being the best person I can be in the water is important. But my social life, my coaching, my dog are all equally important and I feel like this is the first time I've got my life work balance absolutely perfect. "

How's that impacted you as an athlete? 

" You're just much happier in yourself. And I think when you're happier in yourself, you tend to perform well. And I definitely think that was one of the biggest things in triathlon is I was not happy in myself. I wasn't happy with my lifestyle and my performance was not improving. My improvement in surfing is still going up because I'm so happy with how everything else is around me and it doesn't consume my entire life. I have other things. I've got friends. I've got relations. Like my dog is the most important thing in the entire world to me. And I get to spend time with her. I get to walk her down the beach every morning. You know, so lucky. If you have a really easy life and you don't suffer any trauma or setbacks, you take things for granted. Um, and I think definitely in the past couple of years, I've certainly realised how lucky I am in life and grateful for what I have as opposed to what I don't have. "

Thank you to Melissa for taking the time to talk with me. You can find her on Instagram at The Sightless Surfer. Other resources are listed in our show notes.  

And a big thank you to you listeners. This is our 20th episode. A bit of a milestone. Yoo hoo!  If you haven't already, follow us on your favourite listening platform and leave us a review.

And now, also, you can support this independently created and produced podcast by becoming one of our Patreon members. Being an independent podcast means there's no financial backing from a network or a brand. Any financial support we receive to produce the podcast, it comes from listeners like you, and it makes a huge difference. It helps us get the right equipment, sourcing the best guests, and finding the time to continue recording and editing each week. You can learn about our three membership levels and what you get for your support on our Patreon page. The link is included in this episode's show notes, on our website, and on our Instagram page at About That Outdoor Job. Thank you for your continued support.  

​This episode was produced and hosted by me, Charlaine Jannerfeld. ​