Becca Speak, a 23-year-old professional surfing surfer, suffered a serious head injury during a competition and was left unable to speak. The accident occurred in a concrete wave pool, and she was paralyzed for a moment. She was dragged from the water by friends who were watching her compete, and she went to the hospital as the injury had left her bleeding. On the way, she started to experience delays with her speech.
Speak returned home after hospital scans showed that everything looked okay structurally. Over the course of the few days, she felt a little bit worse, feeling like she was falling into a vegetative state, almost. She could barely put a couple of words together. She was very overstimulated by the smallest things, just the sound of someone talking or the light from her phone or outside. Everything was just really overwhelming.
After a second trip to the hospital, doctors confirmed that Speak had sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI), her sixth after a lifetime of enjoying sports including gymnastics, skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, and swimming. What followed was a grueling months-long recovery consisting of physical and cognitive therapy, a journey that is chronicled in the new film “Beyond Normal.” It took the surfer some three months to regain her normal speech patterns and even longer before she felt physically and mentally well again, thanks to neurological treatments, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and physical rehabilitation.
Director and filmmaker Jordyn Romero tells CNN that Becca's story is a comeback story that explores all of these new evolving technologies that didn't exist five, 10 years ago. She has her own experience with head injuries, having sustaining a TBI snowboarding while she was in high school. However, she returned to cross-country training just a week later, thinking she had healed – and still feels some of the effects today.
Romero and co-director Anna Wilder Burns wanted to use Speak's story to raise awareness of the impact of brain injuries. Burns, who was a gymnast turned diver in college, says his understanding of concussions as an athlete growing up was similar to a lot of coaches, which is: you can't see it, so it doesn't feel as real as something like a broken ankle.
Speak has started to surf daily once again, and her treatment has helped her realize that she had been living with the effects of her untreated head injuries for most of her adult life. She has found a way to immerse herself in surfing once more, a sport that she "fell in love with" because it was so free: it's just you and Mother Nature."
Her accident almost changed that, and she admits that for a year, she didn't know if she ever even wanted to surf again. However, she eventually got to thinking she might try it again – even if it was scary. Now, Speak once again surfs every day but now wears a foam helmet.
In conclusion, Becca Speak's story serves as a reminder of the importance of recognizing and addressing the effects of untreated head injuries in sports.
