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She can't see anything more than a metre away – but that hasn't stopped Michele Macfarlane from making a splash in surfing circles.
The 56-year-old visually impaired surfer from Lakeside in Cape Town recently qualified to represent SA at the World Adaptive Surfing Championships in California, USA, set to take place next month.
Michele lives with retinitis pigmentosa, a group of hereditary eye diseases that affect the retina (light-sensitive part of the eye). Because the disease causes tunnel vision, peripheral vision is completely lost.
“I see less than 7%,” Michele tells YOU. “I see heads floating around and if I don’t use my cane, I’ll trip over things.”
She stretches her left arm out in front of her face and slowly moves her finger a few centimetres to the side.
“There. That’s as far as I can see in front and around me.”
Michele started experiencing problems with her vision and her life changed after her diagnosis in 2006.
“I had to give up driving when I was about 35 and that was a massive blow to me,” she says. After her diagnosis, she says took up judo classes again, which she had relished as a child.
"I just had this urge to do something to make me feel strong," she says.
She took up water sports just four years ago when her youngest daughter, Max (15), decided to take surfing lessons. Max took to surfing like a duck to water and her delight inspired her mother.
"I was used to watching other people do stuff that I couldn't do anymore. But when she came out of the ocean and I asked her what she enjoyed about it, she said, ‘Mum, I just feel like there's no problems, you know? It all just disappeared.’”
Michele was intrigued. She too wanted to feel carefree but she didn't think she could surf because of her impaired vision.
After Googling surfing disability she found the Roxy Davis Foundation, a non-profit organisation in Muizenberg that focuses on surf therapy and adaptive surfing.
“At my first session I said to (the owner) Roxy, 'OK, I've done one lesson, but would it be possible for me to ever compete?' I thought she'd say no, but she said yes and so that's how it started.”
Having lived a largely active life, Michele was thrilled to be getting physical again.
It wasn't long before she started participating in local surfing competitions and raising awareness for other visually impaired South Africans.
Michele surfs with a spotter – someone who acts as her eyes and spots waves for her out in the water. She hits the water almost every day and trains with a wobble board at home on days when she can’t make it to the beach.
After surfing for just a year, she was chosen to be part of the Western Province as well as national team and in 2020 she was selected to be in the Para SA team.
“I hadn't expected that and we couldn’t travel because of the pandemic, but the year after that I was reselected and got the chance to compete.”
Michele works as a freelance writer and motivational speaker. She paints in her free time and is working on a piece called Waves of Gratitude which she hopes to auction off to raise funds for the world champs.
She's also started a BackaBuddy campaign for her trip to the US where she hopes to fly SA'S flag high.
“Aside from competing, my mission is to continue to raise awareness for other people with disabilities," she says.
