He is walking with a moon boot on his left foot. 

The 16-year-old skateboarder has only been home in Beaufort for a week.

He returned from Brazil where he was selected to represent Australia in the first ever Street League World Championships. He was on a team of four Australia men – two others who were in their 30s and one in their 20s – competing against the skaters he had grown up watching. 

But the competition that was set to bookmark a big year in skateboarding for the young competitor ended in disappointment and devastation.

Brad broke his foot in practice 10 minutes before the competition was to begin.

“It definitely wasn’t how I thought the trip would go. But that’s alright, there is always next time,” he says. 

Now back home, he’s working on recovering in time to compete at the National Championships in March and training with the development team for the 2020 Olympics and the Victorian Institute of Sport. 

Brad says he should be able to walk without the boot in a week and be on the skateboard again in around two. 

Dad Peter Saunders says the World Championships was one of the qualifying events for the Olympics, meaning Brad will now have to work harder. 

“He had a plan that hopefully he would get good but he has gotten a lot better a lot quicker than he thought,” he says. 

“He has always been very good but now he is getting to the next level.”

The Beaufort Secondary College student skates for at least four or five hours every day, spending three days a week in Beaufort and four in Melbourne while keeping up with school work. 

He frequently travels overseas for the sport to compete and train. 

Last year he spent seven weeks in America, eight weeks in Europe and also made trips to Indonesia and China to compete. Now he is 16, he mostly travels solo without his parents. 

Brad says he feels comfortable travelling alone as he has a network of skaters around the world who look out for him. 

Peter says the skating community worldwide is ‘so close’. 

“If you ride a board, you’re a friend. There’s no discrimination, no racism, it is so good. Even if you can’t speak the language to them they are still your best mate,” he says. 

But one of his biggest competitions last year was back in Australia in Sydney where he was selected as a wildcard for the X-Games. 

“The X-Games is basically the top 20 in the world and it is invite only. Because it was in Australia they gave two wildcards out and he got one of them which was great,” Peter says. 

Brad speaks little about his achievements – his father happily fills that role. It is clear the attention and big competitions have not phased him. He simply loves skating. 

He sits at a dining table in the motel’s cafe with his back to the skate park he and his dad have been building and adapting since they moved to Beaufort 10 years ago. 

The family moved from their previous home in Rosebud, where Brad learnt to skate. 

“There was a regular park my mum used to take me to and a skateboard park got built across the road from it,” Brad says.