The big wave spot of Bayview where Matt has been able to begin combining his two favourite disciplines: tubes and big waves. Photo Alan Van Gysen

Matt does most of his training at home and mostly at Dungeons, a wave which many of the big wave world elite consider to be the most treacherous leg on the new Big Wave World Tour (in fact there’s talk the event may run soon after J-Bay). So as far as wave quality goes the young South African has everything going for him and with the likes of Shane Dorian and company pushing the boundaries of big wave surfing so hard there’s certainly no lack of role models to emulate.

“I’ve got the technique down but need to build on my experience” he willingly admits, “But I’ve been training, I swim, I workout in the gym, I spearfish, I want to make sure I’m ready for the day it’s really big. But I’m not interested in just paddling big waves, they’ve got to be hollow too. Forget waves like Belharra, I want to be pulling into giant gaping tubes and nobody does that better than Shane Dorian.”

Taking off nice and deep at Sunset, Cape Town. Photo Alan Van Gysen

Another of the young South African’s highlights this year was a trip up to the Skeleton Coast in Namibia, for one of the biggest swells ever surfed there during which he scored some of the best waves of his life.