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Hey Brad, welcome to Forward Wake;
It’s been a pretty big, if not frustrating year for you, your literally killing it right now,
despite coming back from an ACL injury last year and now just recovering from shoulder
surgery. What’s going on?
RAD
B
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Yeah I have been going through a pretty rough patch.. I blew my ACL in 2009 and spent
6 months off the water, then after getting back to the USA I discovered that an old shoulder injury was more than just something time would heal. So I cut my trip short and got
back to NZ to get my shoulder reconstructed.
Since my shoulder surgery I have just been relaxing and letting my shoulder recover.
After four weeks and now in the new year and the shoulder is feeling good, I am out of
the sling and starting on my basic rehab.
Tough break, when do you expect to be back on the water?
I should be back on the water by the end of May provided my recovery goes to plan. It
will be then that I go back to the US to start my comeback. Until then I will be working
extremely hard on getting my body back into shape so I can come back strong.
You have been riding for Ronix for quite a while now... what’s it like riding for a major
board manufacturor?
Its been great riding for Ronix, I got picked up by them not long after they launched and
have I really enjoyed getting together with the team for photo and video shoots ever
since. Everyone at Ronix is super cool and we always have such a rad time when the
whole team is together.
Its amazing to ride for such a core brand with the best product on the market, I know I
can rely on my gear to perform whenever I am on the water.
And when can we expect a ‘Brad Smeele’ Pro model board?
I am not too sure yet when I will have a pro model, it has been a goal of mine since I
started riding but my shoulder and knee surgeries have been pretty major setbacks.
I am hoping to have a board in the 2012 line but more realistically it could be in 2013.
We’ll watch out for that one... Back to the present, who are you riding with a lot right
now?
I usually ride with a range of different people especially when I am in the US: Dean
Smith, Harley Clifford, Jeff Weatherall, Chad Sharpe, Chris Oshea, Alex Brown, etc.. But
obviously I am not riding with anyone for now and until the end of May
So I was thinking... who can I get to interview for edition 1... They need to be a huge
NZ rider, somebody killing it on the world
stage, and most importantly somebody
people want to know more about. Let’s be
honest, it didn’t take long to think of the
right person to fit the bill. I dont think I
need to tell you much about Brad Smeele
to set the scene, but incase you’ve been
stuck in a cave for the last few years - Brad
is an Auckland born pro wakeb