ADAPTIVE BY NATURE

Mark “Mono” Stewart is a name that commands respect in the surf world. At 63, this six-time world adaptive surfing champion, Byron Bay local, and recent inductee into the NSW Sports Hall of Champions, is still competing — and still winning — against surfers half his age. But these days, his focus isn’t just on trophies. It’s on building a future for adaptive surfing in Australia.

By Donna Rishton-Potter

When bone cancer took his leg at fifteen, Mono found the ocean — and a new purpose. What started as an escape became a lifelong pursuit that’s taken him around the world and back again. Today, he’s the driving force behind The Adaptive Surf Pro, the Byron Bay event putting Australian adaptive surfing firmly on the international map.

Long before he was organising world-class surf contests, Stewart was a kid from the Northern Rivers with a soccer ball under his arm. Growing up on a dairy farm near Nimbin in the 1970s, a routine sports injury revealed something far more serious.

“I was flown to Sydney where they did the X-rays and found osteosarcoma,” he recalls. “The very next day they took my leg off.”

The operation, he says, was “the easy bit.” What followed was brutal. “Back in ’76 chemo was fully experimental. I was the only kid in a ward full of old people. I was sick for the next two years straight.”

It was the kind of experience that could have crushed anyone, let alone a teen in the prime of his life. But the thing about characters like Mark – nothing, not even a missing leg, keeps them down.

 “You’ve got to keep thinking forward,” he says. “I just kept asking myself, if I can’t play soccer, what can I do?” At eighteen, Stewart moved to the coast and found his answer.

“I thought, maybe I can surf? That became my number one priority.”

With the help of mates, he started on a boogie board — which, back in the mid-70s, you couldn’t buy in a shop. “You had to order them,” he laughs. “My mates would take me out. I had no hair, my skin was wrecked from chemo, and I’d get third-degree burns. We had no idea how sensitive my skin was back then.”

Surfing quickly became a lifeline. “In the ocean you feel normal,” he says. “No one notices that you’ve got one leg. It’s a healing place.”

Mono has surfed Main Beach since ’79, competing against able-bodied surfers and working as a surfboard artist for major brands. Famed Byron Bay shaper Bob McTavish built him his first kneeboard, setting him up for a lifetime in the water.

By the time he met his wife, Deb — the woman who would later help him build a global movement — his life was already deeply entwined with the sea.

If Stewart has a defining trait, it’s that he throws himself completely into whatever he does. When one door closes, he simply looks for the next one to open.

As well as being a known artist in the surfing industry, he’s also been a deep-sea fishing charter operator, and even an adaptive alpine skier. “I got into skiing with such gusto I ended up on the Australian development squad,” he laughs. But the surf always called him home.

In 2015, at 53, Stewart entered his first adaptive surfing competition in La Jolla, California — and won. “That win changed the course of my life,” he says.

Since then, Mono has travelled the world — Hawaii, England, France, Spain, Japan — winning multiple world titles and earning a place among the sport’s true pioneers. “I was the oldest adaptive surfer in the world when I started,” he recalls. “But I’ve always said, I’ll keep going as long as I can.”

Despite adaptive surfing’s rapid growth overseas, Stewart noticed Australia lagging behind. “Every other country had government support, big charity involvement, proper funding,” he says. “I knew we could do something special here, but I didn’t want to put on a half-baked event.”

In 2023, he and Deb launched The Adaptive Surf Pro Byron Bay — Australia’s first professional adaptive surf competition and the opening leg of the Association of Adaptive Surfing Professionals (AASP) World Tour.

“It’s not a cheap exercise; it costs about $200,000 to put on,” he says. “But it’s worth every cent when you see the impact.”

Held across a full week in March, the event includes the Australian Adaptive Surf Titles, a ‘Come and Try’ clinic for new surfers, and the colourful Parade of Nations through Byron’s streets. The main competition spans nine divisions, backed by more than 100 volunteers, live webcasts, and a crowd of locals cheering from the sand.

“We’ve had up to 120 athletes plus their pushers, catchers, medics, and families,” Stewart says. “The atmosphere is unbelievable. Everyone comes together — the pros, the new surfers, the locals. The athletes’ energy is infectious.”

Last year, the Byron event was voted Best Event of the Year by the AASP, and its online reach has exploded from 140,000 to over two million. “Sponsors are fighting over it,” Stewart says. “It’s become that popular.”

Behind the scenes, Stewart is focused on creating a foundation for the sport’s future. Alongside Deb, he established Adaptive 360, a charity designed to help emerging athletes with the often-heavy financial load of competing.

“Adaptive surfing can be expensive to start,” he explains. “We wanted to create something that helps new surfers get the right equipment and a fair chance to compete.”

He’s also mentoring a new wave of talent, including 18-year-old Kai Colless, a two-time world champion who broke his back in an accident and now competes on the world tour. “Seeing these young guys flourish in the water, that’s what it’s all about,” Stewart says.

Through it all, Deb remains the event’s backbone. “She’s the engine that keeps it all running,” he admits. “I’m just the bloke from the beach.”

With the sport’s popularity soaring, Stewart’s next mission is clear: get adaptive surfing into the Paralympics.

The International Paralympic Committee has already recognised the sport, but it was cut from the Los Angeles 2028 Games due to cost and medal restrictions. Stewart believes Brisbane 2032 is Australia’s opportunity to make history.

“We’re working closely with Surfing Australia to make sure we’re ready,” he says. “If we’ve got the Olympics here, we’d be mad not to have adaptive surfing as part of it.”

For a man who’s beaten cancer, won six world titles, and built a global sporting event from scratch, Stewart remains refreshingly down to earth.

“If I can help people find freedom in the water, that’s worth more than any trophy,” he says.

As The Adaptive Surf Pro returns to Byron Bay from March 22–29, 2026, the momentum he and Deb have built shows no sign of slowing. Over 120 athletes from around the world will hit the waves at Main Beach for a week of competition, connection, and community — proving that surfing’s spirit of inclusivity is alive and thriving.

“Every year it gets bigger, better, and more professional,” he says. “The dream is Brisbane 2032. To see our athletes on that world stage, that’s what we’re working towards.”

Until then, you’ll find Mark ‘Mono’ Stewart where he’s always been — on the sand at Main Beach, one leg, one board, and one clear goal: to keep the waves open for everyone.

For more information visit – adaptivesurfingaustralia.com or follow @adaptivesurfingaustralia