Mark Hagger, Lecturer in Construction, Returns to the Surf!

Mark Hagger, a construction lecturer at The College, enjoys surfing in his own time. He’s been taking part in the sport for over 30 years, but stopped when he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis eight years ago. This year, Mark returned to the surf competitively. 

Competing in the England Adaptive Surfing Open in Bristol, Mark was up against some of the world’s best para-surfers. Mark excelled with a score of 7.17 and earned the champion title in the Assisted Division.

The increasing awareness of adaptive sports means that more and more people are able to get into competitive sports, and physical disabilities don’t need to be a barrier to entry. Mark loved sports prior to his medical diagnosis, where his health meant he couldn’t take part in the same way as before. Since then, Mark found out about Adaptive Surfing, and in his own words, “got his mojo back!”

Mark said, “After not surfing for 8 years due to my MS making my legs too weak to surf. I have been actively taking part in Adaptive surfing, which has just taken me on a tour of the North East coast of England helping surf schools get people and pupils of all manner of mental and physical disabilities into the water. With the help of Surfing England and Surfability UK, this has been made possible. I have found this most uplifting to be a part of this. This then led onto taking part in the English Open Adaptive Surfing championship held at the artificial wave outside Bristol in July. Competitors came from as far as Israel to take part in different categories of ability. I took part in the assisted prone division, which involves being in a lying down position. You are scored on your 2 top waves. After a couple of hard heats, I became English Champion, which now means I am now on the English team and will be going to California in December to represent England in the world championships.”

We wish Mark all the best with his future surfing (and teaching!) endeavours.