Former world # 17 surfer and winner of Trestles event hit with second cancer diagnosis

Tsunami, shark attack, cancer, ain't a lot can keep a good man down.

You can’t keep a good man, or so the saying goes.

Richie Lovett, who beat Taj Burrow at his peak to win the Trestles event back in 2003 and who was hit with bone cancer two years later and forced to quit surfing altogether after radical hip surgery before a long rehabilitation, announced on IG this morn a second diagnosis.

“New scars to add to the collection courtesy of cancer diagnoses #2 in the past 14 years. Radical prostatectomy using the DaVinci Robot removed the entire prostate and the disease. Post op biopsy confirmed positive margins and no spread outside the gland.”

Rich, who will turn forty-seven this year, ain’t no stranger to life-or-death experiences.

Apart from the two cancers, he’s been attacked by a shark and a tsunami in the Grajagan jungle, along with Rob Bain and co, all of which he wrote about in 2013, with a little help from Sean Doherty, in his book, The Big Sea. 

A lovely man and we wish him well.