22 years of age, Matt Bromley has big dreams like most of the young men his age. However it’s not the allure of the World Tour, nor the dreamy life of a freesurfer he longs for, no, Matt wants nothing more than to conquer the biggest waves the planet can throw at him.

At the sight of him, tall and lean, you wouldn’t necessarily have guessed it… but the photos Matt shows me demonstrate an impressive level of big wave commitment and competence for a kid his age.

Hailing from Cape Town, South Africa, Matt is in no shortage of big waves to chase. Up there with Hawaii, the region harbours an impressive number of big wave lineups all located within close proximity. Names like Dungeons, Sunset, Outer Kom, Crayfish Factory and little further down the coast Bayview.

“I competed in a few Pro Juniors, but was too interested in scoring big barrels so I quickly chose to go down the freesurf route thanks to support from Billabong and Monster Energy… but today what I really want to do is surf big waves.”

Opting to forego a successful freesurf career during which Matt scored numerous magazine front covers isn’t something he just decided like that, or simply to emulate fellow South African big wave star Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker, but instead the idea first came to him while he was out surfing Jaws.

“At Jaws, I realised that it was possible to surf big waves without simply dropping straight down the face of them. It’s where I understood you can really surf big waves, it’s not just about the drop. It was of course a terrifying experience but at the same time gave me a whole new lease of motivation and today I’d like to start applying some of my barrel experience to surfing bigger waves.”