Kirk Watson award-winning blind sailor and surfer interviewed by Max King

Kirk Watson

Award-Winning Sailor and Surfer

Kirk grew up on an island on Sydney's Northern Beaches which is an absolute haven for watersports.

Kirk loved surfing and would get out there with his mates as often as possible. As a teen, I he started losing his night vision and peripheral vision.

Kirk was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa a degenerative condition. This progressively took things from his life not just his sight, his opportunity to drive a car, his independence, confidence, bike riding, and surfing.

At this point, he got into sailing and started to sail competitively, which gave him great freedom.

Ocean racing taught Kirk about everyone bringing their strengths to the team. He competed in many campaigns including 10 Sydney to Hobarts. Kirk would surf very occasionally with friends when out of Sydney.

A friend who is an amputee surfer encouraged Kirk to enter the Australian National para titles. This really inspired him, experiencing others surfing despite their challenges. This pushed Kirk to get out there as much as he can and really work on improving his surfing.

In 2019 I competed in the US Open, where he won the bind (VS1) division. Unfortunately, he was knocked out early in the 2020 ISA para world titles, he trained hard from that time on. For the 2021 world titles everything came together and Kirk was able to get over to the US for the ISA para world titles again, this time coming home with a silver medal.