In 2017, Ryan Johnson lost his left foot in a motorcycle accident. It was a rough hand to be dealt—Johnson has been a surfer since he was 11-years-old, and after the accident, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to surf again. “It’s losing a bit of your soul, I guess. Losing a part of you that you use for a daily basis, daily activities, you take your whole body for granted,” he told WTKR.
With the help of a prosthetic, however, he was able to paddle out again, which is exactly what he did on September 21 at Sandbridge Beach in Virginia. His wife watched from the sand as Johnson surfed head-high, clean conditions. All was well until he noticed his prosthetic was coming loose. In the blink of an eye, it was ripped from his leg and disappeared into the ocean. “This wave kind of just rushed up and it rushed really hard and then rushed back out and … took my prosthetic with it,” he explained to Wavy.com. “I see the wave, I see the foot, the whole prosthetic, under the wave near the sand and then it crashed and it was gone.”
Now, he’s asking the public for help finding it. It’s not a plain ol’ prosthetic leg, either—it’s got a custom paint job. “It has a picture of The Joker on the front and a picture of Marvin the Martian on the back,” Johnson’s wife Allyson wrote on Facebook.
While he currently has a backup prosthetic, it’s not one he can surf on. “Say I land on a board, or go work out or land on something wrong or kick the ball and hit something hard,” he said. “If you run on this one, it will break.”
Since his leg went missing, he’s been working hard to find it. He’s put up flyers around town and has taken to social media to get the word out, hoping that it will wash up on shore somewhere. “I’ve spoken with the Sandbridge Lifeguards and they’ve been a big help and are on the lookout while they patrol the beach,” he wrote on Facebook. “The strong current and strong rips probably got the best of it moving it all over. The best thing to help is pretty much just go for a walk on the beach and keep a look out to see if it’s washed up. I am wearing my back up prosthetic but it doesn’t fit like the one I lost. We can only hope and pray for the best. If you have any questions or find it please contact me ASAP.”
If you have stumbled across a prosthetic leg that matches the description, reach out to Johnson on Facebook.
