Coast to Coast is New Zealand’s toughest multisport event that takes competitors by foot, bike and kayak the 243 kilometres from Kumara on the West Coast to Sumner in the east. 

It’s harsh, and there is many an able-bodied athlete that falls by the wayside, broken by sheer effort required to complete the iconic race.

But not Shaz Dagg, who made history as the first female amputee to complete Coast to Coast. This is a woman undaunted by any challenge that gets in her way, and those who attend the 2022 East Coast Farming Expo will have a chance to hear her courageous story at the Rural Women New Zealand sponsored seminar on Thursday (February 24).

The mum from Feilding broke her arm in a freak accident while working on a goat milking farm in late 2016. “A gust of wind picked me up and slammed me between the post and gate, breaking my arm in two places,” says Shaz. That was just the beginning.

Unfortunately, she was bumped from surgery for five days, which meant nine surgeries in 11 days. The complications meant she ended up with compartment syndrome and an arm that did nothing. “It was just useless. It was more of a hinderance and was dragging me down.”

So she told husband Owen she wanted it amputated. “He was adamant there was no way I was doing that but I wanted to move forward with my life and in the end he came round. Now he knows it was the right decision.”

She’s had two amputations as doctors try to limit the constant complex regional pain syndrome she lives with daily and the phantom pain too. “You can keep doing further amputations but at what level do you stop? There may be a chance of one more amputation to remove neuromas which keep growing back on the end of my nerves which creates the pain. Normally they cut them off and remove them, but mine have regrown and formed even bigger.” They have amputated three times, each time going further up the arm to where it now sits, above the elbow.

Despite the Everests Shaz continues to climb, she doesn’t let anything get in her way. She is New Zealand’s first elite para-triathlete, is a sport development advisor for Parafed Manawatu and mentors youngsters on the Cactus Programme. She has three times won the national para-triathlete championships as a PTS4 athlete and has won and twice been second in the Oceania championships. From her 10 starts in world triathlon events she has eight times made the podium. Before her accident she completed the Taupo ironman and isn’t discounting another crack at it. But for now her focus is on the 2022 Coast to Coast. In 2021 organisers had her do the 70km paddle in a duo kayak with a support person leading, but this time, she is going solo. “That’s a whole new mad level,” she says. “This is a massive ask. I’m not sure if this is stupid but I’ve got to try aye!”

It’s experiences like these that make her say she wouldn’t change her journey for the world. “If I hadn’t lost my arm, I wouldn’t have had these opportunities and pathways to compete in para-sports. I wouldn’t have travelled to Lausanne, Australia, or Tokyo where I was surrounded by other incredible athletes. People may dream to have a normal experience but to have a para experience is a whole new level,” she says. 
“I have friendships that are ongoing. These are people who understand what I am going through. Able-bodied athletes have no idea what we go through to compete or even to get to where we are achieving. It is a whole different left field . . . a bloody awesome one.”

Her arm has a name – Stumpy. “This is the best part of my life so far, and I say that whole-heartedly from the heart . . . even with the pain.”

Her story appeared on the television series Attitude, which she saw for the first time when it aired. It showed some extremely raw times when she was in tears because of the pain. “I didn’t know they were filming and to see that come up knowing it was the first time I had let people in made me quite angry at the start.”

She now realises it was probably a good thing that people saw beyond her staunch front. “Life sucks sometimes but you just have to get on with it,” says Shaz. 

Her message is simple – just get on with life. “Things happen for a reason. There is always a good or positive thing to come out of every negative. Find a way forward because if you can’t no one else can do it for you!”