Conquering the mega waves of Nazare, Portugal is no easy feat, but Beaches-born rider Matt Formston has proven he can do it with his eyes closed.
The legally blind surfer took to the famous break, not to challenge people’s perceptions on his capabilities, but rather his own, for his new documentary on his life, The Blind Sea.
“I’ve always been into bigger waves. But there is no other wave in the world that’s like Nazare, it’s like my Guinness World Record of 51 ft, you don’t get waves like that in Australia.”
“I’ve always been into bigger waves. But there is no other wave in the world that’s like Nazare, it’s like my Guinness World Record of 51 ft, you don’t get waves like that in Australia.”
“Everything I’ve always done, It’s not about other people, it’s just about me and me pushing myself to do what I think is possible,” he said.
Matt was not born blind but lost 97 per cent of his vision by the age of five due to a rare genetic condition called macular dystrophy. The disorder obstructs the centre of his vision as well as blurs out his peripherals.
However, this has never stopped him from achieving numerous athletic accomplishments. The 46-year-old has won world championships for both surfing and cycling, even representing Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
For his next challenge, the surfer wanted to test his limits like never before.
“I’ve surfed all the big swells, like all the biggest swells that hit the East Coast… I think my mum said yesterday in the Q&A, whenever there’s a storm warning saying everyone’s out of the water, she knows I’m probably going surfing.
The film follows Matt’s achievements from past to present – most recently breaking the Guinness world record for the largest wave surfed by a blind male and training to hold his breath for almost six minutes in preparation for any serious wipeouts.
“My longest breath hold underwater was five minutes, 48 seconds. After that, when I came back from Nazare, I was like, to my coach, out of curiosity, what are other people doing? He’s like, mate, most big wave surfers aren’t even close to that.
“I think if you sit, if you focus on what other people are doing if I knew that people did four minutes, I probably would have got to four and stopped there. And it’s the same with the waves like I wasn’t really focused on setting the world record. I just wanted to surf the biggest wave of my life for me,” Matt said.
The film’s director Daniel Fenech has known Matt for years and jumped at the opportunity to tell his story when the ex-paralympian approached him.
“It’s a documentary of his life story… the core mantra that he lives his life by, there’s no such thing as can’t, there are always obstacles but you can go around an obstacle,” Daniel said.
The film produced by Brick Studios will be Daniel’s first feature film, he says it offers many euphoric and equally suspenseful moments, focusing on inclusion and drawing the curtain on what it takes to surf these monstrous waves.
“We waterproofed up some microphones, and we rigged them to all the guys out there.. when you’re out back in between sets, it’s that bonding with your mates that’s kind of like some of the best moments you can have out there. And even at a Nazare.” He explained
“There was this one time where he got hit, and it was gnarly.
“We all have radios and things, but when you’d sort of hear the spotter switch from English to Portuguese, you knew something was wrong.”
“We all have radios and things, but when you’d sort of hear the spotter switch from English to Portuguese, you knew something was wrong.”
Matt said there were no scary moments for him as it was all in his training, although, admits the aftermath of around 20-30 ft whitewash rushing over him after his 51 ft wave was “the most violent 30 seconds” of his life.
The blind surfer has been doing just that since riding shories in Narrabeen as a kid, until about 14 years ago when he ‘escaped’ to the Central Coast in part, to avoid overcrowded oceans. Now his new home is experiencing a similar fate, and the world champ had this to say about current surf respect and culture.
“We’re all people, and we’re all part of the problem as far as the busyness, but if we all respected each other and we sat in the lineup, waited for waves, allowed the locals to sit up the top, because, you know, they’ve done the time at their break, have that proper surf culture, if we could bring that back somehow, for me that would be the way to fix the current problem.”
For all his achievements, Matt does not seem to be slowing down and much like his transition from surfing to cycling, he is now exploring the idea of freediving to add another notch to his world champion belt.
“I’ll still surf, but in parallel, I’m considering setting a freediving world record. I’ve got this breath capacity now for my big wave surfing, so why not swim as deep as I can down on one breath and see what sort of record I can sit there?”
The Blind Sea will be playing at Cremorne Orpheum and United Avalon – but if you want to see this world first experience you better be quick, screenings are only from the 15th – 18th of August.
