Sarah before the accident (Picture: Sarah Dean)

On 28 December, 2016, in a small town called Poulsbo, Sarah Dean was hit by a car travelling 60mph.

She was thrown over a guardrail down into a small river underneath the highway, and woke up in the stream with yellow and brown leaves stuck on her wet, bleeding body. Sarah was convinced she was going to die.

The driver didn’t stop and two years later, hasn’t been found.

As Sarah lay in the water, she was faced with a decision: stay put and likely die from loss of blood, or fight back.


She chose the second option.

Sarah put one arm in front of the other to drag herself up the 15ft hill she’d been flung over, and slide her body back on the highway, where she waved down three passing cars whose drivers called the police.



Sarah doesn’t remember anything after that, and said she didn’t feel any pain as she lay on the road.

When she came back to consciousness she was in hospital. Her right leg had been amputated below the knee.

The bottom half of Sarah’s leg was amputated after she was hit by a car travelling at 60mph (Picture: Sarah Dean)

Before the accident, Sarah had been an up and coming semi-pro surfer, having been taught at age 18 by the late surfer Kirk Hodges.

‘I don’t know how or when I fell in love with surfing,’ Sarah tells Metro.co.uk, ‘but I was a young girl living in Seattle with Andy Irons photos on my walls.

‘The reason I like surfing is no matter what happened in live, after I surfed I always came back a happier person.’

Confronted with her new body, Sarah struggled to see how she would be continue to follow her passion. But with the same determination she felt lying in that stream, she decided she would fight to get back into the world of surfing.

She refuses to let the loss of her leg hold her back (Picture: Sarah Dean)

‘I had no choice,’ Sarah tells us. ‘I was gonna give up on life or I was gonna live my life doing what I love most; surfing. Quitting on living is nor was ever an option.’

Six months after her amputation, Sarah took her cat on a road trip from Bainbridge Island to San Diego, where her Hawaiian friends and her aunt lived.

With their support, she slowly learned to surf again – first with one leg, then with her original leg plus a prosthetic designed just for surfing.

‘The first time I surfed I almost popped up but it was near impossible due to lack of having a proper length surfing leg,’ Sarah explains. ‘You need a walking leg and a specific leg just for your passion, whether it be hiking, running on blades, or any sport.

Sarah has slowly re-learned how to surf with a customised prosthetic leg (Picture: Sarah Dean)

‘So I had to adjust to wearing shorter prosthetic when surfing just so I could pop up in order to surf a wave period.’

Eight months after surgery, Sarah went to the World Championship in La Jolla, California. Things didn’t go as well as she had hoped.

‘I was pissed,’ says Sarah. ‘I couldn’t surf or even get up in each of my heats.

‘I didn’t have the strength. It hurt so bad to stand up on my shin bone while it ground against the fiber carbon metal of my prosthetic.’



Again, Sarah refused to give up.

Sarah surfing in her first competition after her accident (Picture: Sarah Dean/Son of a Bishop Photography)

‘I caught and stood up briefly on one wave before claiming it and immediately falling back down into the water.

‘I went into the very last day wanting and hoping to win the world title. I sometimes have too high expectations of myself, but that’s all I know. That’s who I am and always will be.’

It’s taken time, pain, and a lot of work, and there’s still a long way to go – but Sarah has made her way back on to the surfboard. She hopes that her story will inspire others to overcome whatever challenge they face, fight for their passions, and keep going no matter what.

It hasn’t been easy. Sarah has struggled to accept her new body, finding it tough to adjust to the difficulty of doing things she once found easy.

Becoming an amputee has also changed Sarah’s relationship with alcohol, making her go sober.

She’s determined to be a champion (Picture: Sarah Dean)

‘I have forgiven the driver since the day it happened. Why? Because I know he was drunk, or on drugs, or both,’ she tells us. ‘And I am a recovering alcoholic myself and because of this accident… I used it to turn my life around and stopped drinking 100%.

‘I have no regrets when I drank but I lived in fear that I would accidentally hurt someone else. And if I ever hurt someone because of my recklessness, then I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I can live with one leg but killing someone, I simply could not.’


Surfing still hurts. It’s still hard. But Sarah won’t stop fighting.

Alongside surfing and working as a photographer, Sarah hopes to travel the world and tell her story to inspire others.

‘Before the accident, I was beginning to land my airs, riding bigger and bigger swells, and getting bigger sponsorships,’ says Sarah. ‘I was going semi pro.

‘I’m that much closer to surfing how I [used to] with every session.

And will inspire people to never give up on their passions (Picture: Sarah Dean)

‘My passion is still big waves, and inspiring kids and adults to get help, not numb themselves with the bottle. I want to travel throughout the world giving speeches and inspiring people.

‘My relationship with my new body is a fight every day.

‘Some days I just put on my prosthetic like normal and go about my day. But then I have what i call an amputation day where I stay inside, cry, and refuse to put on my prosthetic because I’m so annoyed, frustrated and refuse to deal with all the ins and outs you need to accomplish just to get up in the middle of night to use the bathroom

‘But each month is a lot easier than the last.

‘I have to admit, I have a long way to go until I accept myself fully. I truly think when I get my best wave or barrel even before the amputation, that’s when I will have fully accepted the new me.

‘I know that day will happen.’

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