Surfing sensation Llywelyn Williams is celebrating after becoming a Welsh champion.

Amputee Llywelyn, 27, from Abersoch, in Gwynedd, won the kneeling category at the Welsh Adaptive Surfing Championships at Adventure Parc Snowdonia in Dolgarrog in Conwy.

He was among 20 competitors, including from the USA, France, Israel and some homegrown talent.

Llywelyn’s dreams of becoming a competitive surfer began on the beaches of Porth Ceiriad and Porth Neigwl in Gwynedd.

His hopes were dealt a huge blow by a horrific accident when he was 11 which cost him a leg but continuing with his sport has been just another challenge to be overcome and he was back in the water in less than a year.

“I started competing soon after and have travelled all over the world,” he said and since then he has won gold at the English Adaptive Championships in 2018 in the kneeling category and recently represented Wales at the International Surfing Association World Adaptive Championships in California.

He added: “At the US Open championships I wrote on a piece of paper asking if anyone would like to take part in a Welsh championship and more than 40 people said they would love to come.

“I set about organising it and we had a very successful event here at Dolgarrog three years ago but then Covid happened and put a stop to everything and this year we are back again and there are 20 athletes here taking part in the championships.

“I was a bit stressed before the event started but with everything underway, I’m as happy as can be,” he said.

In the event, Llywelyn rose to the occasion and came away with a win in the kneeling category.

Known as ‘Sponge’ to his friends in the surfing world Llywelyn said he got the name after the cartoon character SpongeBob. “I had a gap in my teeth when I was younger,” he said.

He’ll be off to California again later this year for the US Open but before that he will travel to Spain and to Bristol for the English championships at an inland wave site.

Also there was a surfing pioneer who’s paralyzed from the shoulders down who made an emotional return to North Wales.

Spike Kane, 59, learned to ride the waves off Anglesey before moving to America’s West Coast where a horrific road accident left him with life-changing injuries.

He was reunited with his specially adapted surfboard at Adventure Parc Snowdonia three years after he first surfed at its artificial wave lagoon which was the first in the world when it opened in 2015.

Spike, a Scouser who now lives in Seattle, was back for the two-day Welsh Adaptive Surfing Championships to show that Conwy can rival California for surf and that disabilities are no barrier to competitive sport.

Spike, originally from Bootle, in Liverpool, took up surfing more than 40 years ago and would regularly travel to Rhosneigr on Anglesey to ride the waves. He worked as an outdoor activities coach teaching other to surf, sail and kayak.

After travelling to the USA, he “fell in love with the place” and decided to live there permanently.

Spike’s life took a dramatic turn in 2005 when he was riding his motorbike in Seattle and was struck by another vehicle which had run a red light.

He suffered a fractured spine and is paralysed from his armpits and spent weeks in hospital but that wasn’t going to stop him.

“I was aware of adaptive surfing and I’d taken disabled people surfing in Liverpool so I knew the resources available and that doors were not closing on me. I’ve always been active and being able to continue surfing meant the world to me,” he said.

Spike is looking forward to seeing adaptive surfing become a Paralympic sport.

“We’re aiming at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

“We hope that if it isn’t a competitive sport at the Games it will be an exhibition event. The standards are high and we hope the Games will help raise standards even higher,” he added.

The man-made lagoon on the former aluminium smelting site was the world’s first inland venue to host an adaptive surfing championship event three years ago and organisers Adventure Parc Snowdonia have been keen to have the adaptive surfers back – it’s for those with additional needs or challenges – and its proved a big hit with the boarders.

The main sponsor for the event is The Mailing Room, a Bury-based family company with an interest in adaptive surfing. AmpSurf, an organisation set up to inspire and rehabilitate people with disabilities, and Llywelyn’s family company, Hopalong Clothing, are also supporting the event.