Rogan Dean

Champion. There are those that let a life trauma dictate their life and then there are those that do what ever the hell they were going to do anyway, Rogan Dean is the latter.

Growing up playing football, Rogan was living the life and pursuing his dream of playing for the NRL. In 2020 his life changed forever when he was hit by a car while on his motorbike and suffered a crush injury to his foot leaving him with the decision to either have a prosthetic foot or remove more of his leg to widen the range of prosthetics available and allow him to pursue his purpose.

To Compete.

Competing in any form is one of Rogan’s driving forces and it lead him to become the Crossfit Games Adapted Devision world champion in 2023. Winning gold after only his second appearance at the games (winning silver in 2022) and short time in Crossfit, Rogans achievements are incredible. Most of us fully abled people would wither at the physical feats that Rogan is able to put his body through as an adaptive athlete.

It was an inspiration and an honour to have Rogan sit for his portrait and allow me to hear his story for my Immortals project.

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting!

Taekwondo* fighting! Competing at world championship level Taekwondo and representing the United Kingdom, Courtney Eardley has been to the pinnacle of her combat sport.

As a third dan black belt her hands and feet have become weapons, so don't let the pretty smile and charming personality fool you, she can mess you up!

Hanging up the competitive belt, Courtney now teaches Taekwondo through her online presence while she travels between Australia and Thailand learning new forms of marshal arts including Muay Thai and Brazilian JuJitsu.

In our interview Courtney shared what it was like to compete at the top level, both the good and the bad, opening up about the intense dieting verging on starvation put upon athletes to make weight for their devision. This compounds when competing in your treens and as a young woman with the changes your body is naturally going through.

Check out the full interview on my YouTube which will be released later this week.

Immortals Project Update

20%..!!! I am absolutely stoked to have crossed this milestone for my Immortals project!

Setting out to help 100 athletes take the image worthy of their story I knew I was going to meet some world class athletes, but still in this early stage I am blown away with the people I have met and the story’s I have captured.

Interviewing and shooting athletes from amateur part timers to pros on the world stage, so far there are a few traits they all have that make them great I think we can learn from.

  1. Unwavering long-term vision. All these athletes have days where they doubt themselves, don’t want to train, get injured, lose competitions, lose sponsors, have setbacks but continue to rock up and put in the work for YEARS until they reach the vision they have for themselves. The ability to just not give up over a long period of time results in being the last man standing and reaping the reward of experience.

  2. Doing the simple things to the 110%. We all want to jump straight to the Gucci, fun and sexy part of our pursuits once we have a novel understanding of the basics. But these guys take it to the next level in drilling the basics. Repeating a punch, gear change, movement until it is just as natural to them as breathing before trying to master the technical.

  3. No side projects. There is one project, one pursuit, one trophy. They don’t get distracted by every shiny object that comes their way. This is the mission, and the mission is all that matters.

I cant wait to see were this project takes me, the athletes I’m yet to meet and the images I can give to them as a memory of there sporting legacy in this moment in time.

You can watch some of the conversations here on my Youtube channel.