Newly-crowned world adaptive surfing champ Mark ‘Mono’ Stewart, left, was given a warm welcome by locals at the Rails pub in Byron Bay last Sunday.
‘Mono’, who won the gold medal at the first world adaptive surfing championships at La Jolla in California late last month, was also honoured by Byron Shire Council last Thursday.
Councillors passed a resolution naming October 2 as Mark ’Mono’ Stewart Day in Byron Shire.
Stewart, who lost a leg to bone cancer as a teenager, rides a modified kneeboard in the event for surfers with a physical disability..
He defeated surfers from Brazil, South Africa, and Hawaii in the final.
The Byron Bay local told media he’d been waiting 35 years for this event and now he had finally not just competed, but won it.
He told the ABC that he ‘had a tear in my eye every day watching paraplegics just ripping’.
