User:RightCowLeftCoast/Sandbox/Scott Leason

Scott Leason is a blind American athlete. A veteran of the United States Navy, Leason lost his eyesight and sense of smell after he was shot during a robbery. After several years of living blind, Leason took up sports becoming an award winning surfer, wakeboarder, and water skier.

Biography
Leason grew up in Corona del Mar, Newport Beach, where he use to surf; he began to surf at the age of 10. Leason served as a signalman, in the United States Navy for seven years, and had been assigned to the USS Tripoli. By 1992, Leason was divorced and was unemployed, following his loss of his job in construction; moving in with his father in La Quinta, California, he hoped to become employed by the city.

Robbery and living blind
At the age of 37, Leason was shot in the head during a robbery while working as a clerk at a Circle K. The 9mm bullet missed his brain, but severed his left optic nerve and exited through his right eye socket. This led to a surgery which resulted in the loss of both eyes. Leason also lost his sense of smell due to being shot in the head. The robbery occurred on Independence Day, 1993.

Initially, after learning skills needed to live being blind, Leason trained to be a self-defense instructor, but was unable to find employment in that capacity. He then attempted to advance academically, but was unsuccessful in that endeavor. Leason began to use drugs and alcohol to coup with his anger; due to this he ended up being in a conservatorship, and living in an assisted living care facility. , Leason resides in City Heights, San Diego.

Athletic career
At the age of 50, Leason began to turn his life around, beginning his athletic career. Leason began to train at the Mission Bay Aquatic Center. In 2009, Leason began to be trained how to use technology to live independently at the Western Blind Rehabilitation Center; in 2012, Leason began to utilize VoiceOver on a iPhone 5 which he received from the Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center.

In 2011, Leason competed in a triathalon in San Diego. In 2015, Leason completed the Ironman 70.3 in Arizona; that same year he won the International Surfing Association World Adaptive Surfing Championship. In June 2016, Leason competed in the USA Adaptive Surfing Championships in Oceanside, California; he became the first blind champion of that competition. Later in 2016, he competed in the USA Water Ski competition in Harmony, North Carolina; he earned second place in men's tricks. In 2018, that year he was ranked first in the United States, and fifth in the world, in adaptive surfing; that year Leason was a member of the United States National Adaptive Team for USA Surfing. That same year, Leason competed in the Malibu World Wake Association Regional Championship, earning first place in the adaptive standing division, being the first blind competitor to do so; the regional championship occurred in Caldwell, Idaho. Also in 2018, Leason was part of a team which completed the Ironman 70.3 in Oceanside. In July 2021, Leason competed in the Nautique World Wake Association National Championships at Winter Haven, Florida.