Given what he's been through in the past 18 months, Bede Durbidge will never take walking for granted again. That he's not only walking, but surfing on the Championship Tour (CT) as well, is simply astounding. Durbidge, you'll recall, cracked his pelvis wide open during a heat at the Billabong Pipeline Masters in December of 2015. After doctors were able to stabilize his vitals and bolt him back together, they cautioned him about getting his hopes up for a comeback. They needed both a steel plate and a metal rod to bind his pelvis back together. The recovery process, which is something he's still enduring, took the better part of the year. But Bede got a huge break during this past off-season when doctors told him the pin, which he thought would be in there for life, could actually be removed.
When Bede Durbidge was being carted off the beach at Pipeling in 2015, his entire surfing future was in doubt. - WSL / Kirstin Scholtz
Durbidge didn't need any convincing. And the result of pulling the pin has been life-altering. Now, the Australian is feeling a lot more confident about getting his surfing to pre-injury form, and as he does, you can bet he'll be making a jump up that Jeep Leaderboard.