Fellipe "Kizu" Lima

I was born in 1987 in Belo Horizonte, where I spent most of my life playing in the quiet streets of the neighborhood where I lived, exploring the woods and making collections of all kinds. I was introduced to the sport at an early age when I got from my dad at 4 years old my first motocross bike, 50c. i use to ride by the roads close to home and was when  I started to enjoy extreme sports, until the end of adolescence. At age 8 I joined the Kart with some friends for a few years and kept getting full encouragement of my father. I learned to like the adrenaline of competition and I ended up winning titles as a MG vice-champion in local and national competitions. As it was a very expensive sport to have a hobby, I gave up competitions.

At age 12 I’ve met the sports that would become my passion: Skate and Surf and all kind of board sports, that completely changed my focus and my routine. With the latest findings in sports, skateboarding and surfing prompted me to go live temporarily in countries like Australia and the United States, chasing up for beautiful places with perfect waves and skate parks. Meanwhile, I’ve found many opportunities by participating in various longboard downhill championships.

Throughout my teenage, skateboarding was my faithful companion, where we walked through the long, steep hills, dirt or asphalt, sunny or rainy, at any time of day. It was with skateboard that I met people who have become best friends for life.

The years passed, and a new phase of my life began with the entrance to the Faculty of Biology. My contact with nature has always been very intense, and had as a goal to specialize in the field of Marine Biology, getting closer to the sea and consequently the surf.

In 2006, between my 18 to 19 years, on an ordinary day, I went with colleagues in the morning to do field work for a college course. After a long and tiring day, with very few nights spent hours, went to find my friends who had gathered near the study site, in a friends house located in a gated community in Nova Lima.
After some time of conversation and banter with friends, i seat on the railing of the balcony to relax the body ... and I dozed off ...

This nap deeply marked my life. I fell in that instant from a height of approximately 3m , fracturing three lumbar vertebrae T11,T12,L1 which made me paraplegic . I was taken to the hospital Joao XXIII , where I spent one of the most traumatic nights of my life . The sensation of not feeling my body , not knowing what was happening or consequence of that accident were not clear . The next day I was transferred to the hospital Life Center  for surgery and stayed there for one week.

I spent a few months in bed , doing physiotherapy intensely and always with the hope that once again walk again . Time passed and with it the hope of walking . Attended various treatments , including part of a study done in Florida called " Project Walk " , focused on technology for people with disabilities . The project brought a very interesting bit of hope and anticipation of my new life, but I know it takes patience , because science still has much to evolve mainly in relation to studies of stem cells .

As I was always into sports and had a lot of support from family and friends, quickly realized I would have to adapt, and I decided to change the course of my life. With the support of physiotherapy, went back to extreme sports like free dive, skate (seated), kite buggy, trike drift, but still was not satisfied because I missed surfing.

That's when I decided to change my routine suddenly, grabbed me in my dreams, I packed my bags and moved alone to Florida - USA. There opened my mind for kayaking, began to paddle through the swamps and beaches of Florida, and discovered that it was a highly adaptive to disabled sports. The sport opened the door for me again and brought me hope.

Back in Brazil, I realized how I could go back to surfing again, uniting the two sports I loved, kayaking and surfing, that was when I met Kayak Surfing.

In 2010 I began my new career as an Kayak surfing and Waveski athlete, participating in a World Cup, South American and Brazilian Cup. To not lose focus, just forming in a course more objective, Business Management and in 2012 moved to Rio de Janeiro.

Increasing my contacts in the city, ended up learning more about kayaking and it was where I met the Paracanoe K1 Sprint ​​and Oceanic bringing great results for my athletic career.

My greatest achievements at the present moment are the title at the ISA world adaptive surf championship that makes me the first World Champ in the history of the sport in 2015 and in 2016 when I won for the second time. I have competed others important championships like World Waveski Championship in Portugal 2016, Kayaksurf Worldcup Australia 2010, Kayaksurf South American 2010 in Barra do Sul, Santa Catarina, and also became South American Champion in 2013 of Paracanoe Sprint K1 category TA and participated in World Paracanoe 2013 in Germany being among the top 8 in the world.

Love what I do and love to feel the adrenaline that sports gives me. I want to always exceed my limits and my biggest goal is the Olympics and do our best to maybe win the gold medal.
 

With the advancement of technology, dream walk again and be able to run at any time to the sea feeling the feel of sand on my feet and wave touching my skin. Meanwhile, do not let life stop, because life does not stop, life does not wait ...