Soon after winning his first event of the year at the 2019 Tahiti Pro Teahupo’o this week, Owen Wright has been promoting the use of helmets in the sport as a trend moving forward.
There aren’t many professionals on the circuit who can often be seen with the headwear, but Wright succeeded in his first experiment wearing a helmet in competition—and he’s now a big advocate.
Wright—who missed a significant portion of his career after suffering a serious head injury while surfing Hawaii in 2015—said after his triumph in Tahiti, the 29-year-old said:
“That’s the thing with head injuries, I found that time period really hard to grasp — even now it’s pretty blurry. My brain is so good, I feel healthy, I feel with it … and that’s why this one to me was so much more of a sweet victory.
“My health is doing so well I was like, ‘I want to protect it’. I don’t want to end up back where I was.”
Wright, 29, became the seventh different surfer to win in seven championship events this season, keeping the 2019 WSL Men’s Championship Tour wide open with four events left.
He remains eighth in the overall standings, however, just over nine points away from leaderFilipe Toledo.
