Jake Davis - Surfing Against The Odds

Part One

Part Two

Background Story

The power and flow of Jake Davis’ surfing makes it hard to believe the road he’s travelled to get his career back on track and overcome a potentially paralyzing injury.

Flashing back to 2016 he was captain of the US Junior Surf Team and on the path for a World Tour spot, competing against the greatest competitive surfers on earth. His time was mainly spent between his home break of San Clemente and training on the North Shore with Sunny Garcia. His brother, Luke, was already Pro and Jake looked well on the way to joining him reaching spot 228 on the QS in 2015.

It was not yet his time. He started feeling back pain, that got progressively worse. He powered on through the immense discomfort until a heavy wipe-out on a training trip in Hawaii led to contact with the reef.

Following this fall he experienced excruciating pain on a regular basis, at times it was so bad he didn’t want to move, concerned he’d paralyze himself.  Finally, the core issue was identified - a huge vein on his spine between his vertebrae - and back surgery was required to alleviate the problem.

Fast forward to 2024, and nearly 8 years later Jake is surfing stronger than ever, currently ranking 28^th on the QS.  He’s proudly wearing ISURUS wetsuits, and this film, shot by Jacob Vanderwork and edited by Jack Enright reflect on his road to recovery and hopes for the future.

Jake is a big fan of the ISURUS ZipFree Shield Collection due to the flexibility and "zero restriction" paddling. 

Watch the video below to get a taste of quite how exceptional a surfer Jake was prior to his surgery – quite simply one of the best up-and-coming surfers in the world. 

The Next Step from Jakedavisofficial_ on Vimeo.