Get Pegleg To The Mexican Surf Comp

You need nerves of steel to go over the ledge at Puerto Escondido, the Mexican big wave spot that causes the very ground to shake when the swell detonates onto the concrete-like sand. This place is not known as 'Mexican Pipeline' for nothing. The drop is fast, unforgiving and not for the timid.

Now imagine paddling into that drop with an artificial leg.

Pegleg doing his thing at home in Cornwall.

Pegleg (yes, really) Rik Bennett, a big wave charging amputee from St Agnes, Cornwall is representing Team GB in California at this year's ISA World Adaptive Surf Championships having finished a very creditable 5th last year. The team has been lucky to source funding for this year, not something that's exactly easy to do in any sphere of the surfing world.
The real kicker is that Pegleg has also been invited to the Adaptive Surf League Open a week later, in Mexico. There is no funding available for this once-in-a-lifetime extension to his trip, and Peg isn't exactly a man dripping in wealth. What he has got (in spades) is the ability, willingness and right blend of lunacy and survival instincts to actually throw himself down the face of potentially monster waves (with an artificial leg, remember that bit).

Peg diving for the bottom on the biggest wave I've ever seen at this spot.

Nice morning swim, having lost his board, watch and nearly leg and wetsuit.....

If you want to help do something amazing, and give a real hero (just look online for the amount of work he's done for charity over the years) the chance to prove himself against the best big wave Adaptive surfers in the world, please consider chipping in a few quid for this campaign - I'm pretty sure the warm feeling you'll get from knowing you've helped a one-legged man fall down the face of a bone-crushing wall of water will be worth the price of admission. It's going to make one hell of a youtube video at worst.

Donations will be used to fund Peg's travel from California to Mexico, accommodation and living expenses.