In 2015, Zoe Smith‘s life changed drastically. She was a passenger in a car accident that resulted in the amputation of her left leg below the knee. Before the accident, Smith didn’t surf. But around the time of the COVID lockdowns, she decided to learn. Just a year later, she secured a fifth-place at the World Para Surfing Championships in California. In 2024, she won a gold medal there. Now, she’s got her sights set on another one, and she’s training at Edinburgh’s Lost Shore Surf Resort.
“I actually had my feet on the dashboard when the impact came,” she told the BBC about her accident. “The airbag detonated and my leg was broken beyond repair. At the time, I was profoundly disabled by a lot of different injuries that occurred.”
Smith’s injuries weren’t just physical. The loss of a limb in particular can have a heavy mental toll, but Smith knew what she didn’t want to become.
“When you lose a limb, you can certainly feel like you have a loss of identity,” she explained. “There’s a process which you have to go through, and a lot of it is that you have to look inside yourself and work out what it is that you want. I didn’t want to be somebody whose limb loss defined them.”
Surfing helped her find her new identity, and she dove right in.
“After my accident, finding something that made me feel truly alive again was incredibly important,” she said. “When I discovered surfing, it gave me that feeling back. Being in the water, pushing myself and learning what my body could do was a real turning point for me.”
Opinions around wave pools are heavily divided, but it is impossible to deny their helpfulness when it comes to training. And Smith is using Lost Shore to its fullest extent.
“My training regime in preparation for the Worlds this year has been intense,” she said, “and with the 2026 competition taking place in a surf lagoon for the first time, I was keen to test my skills at Lost Shore.”
The 11th ISA World Para Surfing Championship takes place from November 19–22 at DSRT Surf in Palm Desert, California, so training at Lost Shore makes sense. Having consistent, repeatable waves on offer helps a surfer refine their techniques in a way that surfing in the ocean can’t, and for someone like Smith, that’s invaluable.
“Training at Lost Shore has been a fantastic opportunity to work on my surfing in a consistent environment and really focus on the details that can make a difference at the World Championships,” she explained. “I’m excited to keep progressing, represent Great Britain on the international stage and see what I can achieve.”
The Lost Shore team couldn’t be happier to host Smith as she trains for another gold medal.
“Zoe’s story is a brilliant example of what surfing can make possible,” said Lee Wood, Managing Director at Lost Shore Surf Resort. “To come through such a life-changing experience, discover the sport relatively recently and go on to become a world champion is an extraordinary achievement.
“We’re proud that Lost Shore can provide a place for athletes like Zoe to prepare, develop their skills and pursue their ambitions on the world stage. Consistency is a huge part of performance surfing, and being able to work on specific aspects of your surfing in a repeatable environment can make a real difference.”
