E95 | Brad Smeele
Episode summary | Brad Smeele
Brad Smeele was a world champion wakeboarder at the top of his game. His life was an endless summer of travel, competing, modeling, 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, fulfillment 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 | 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 a 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 Brad
