For any surfer, taking on the monster waves at Nazaré in Portugal is a death-defying risk. For Matt Formston, there’s another consideration: he can't see
Matt Formston has one memory from when he could still see. He’s not completely sure if it’s real, as he must have been very young, maybe three or four. In that one memory, it is Christmas Eve. Formston and his family are at the house of some friends who live on the same street in Narrabeen, a coastal suburb of Sydney, Australia.
Getting around on land, having to memorise every kerb and pothole, was — and is — exhausting for Formston. In the water, though, he felt at ease. Narrabeen is a surf town — it gets a name-check in The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA” — and as Formston was growing up, there were surfers all around him. Damien “The Iceman” Hardman lived on his street, and he used to catch the bus with Nathan “The Hog” Hedge .
In the Northern Hemisphere, winter is the season of the big wave. This is when the famous breaks at Mavericks in California, Jaws in Hawaii, or Ireland’s Mullaghmore Head gain energy from storm swells in the North Pacific and Atlantic and start to produce waves as high as 50 or 60 feet, which tower over the surfers who are drawn to take them on. There is one wave, though, off the coast of Portugal, which has become the talking point of the scene in the last decade.
In late November last year, I met Formston in the bar of his hillside hotel in Nazaré, which overlooks the marina to the south of the town. The weather was terrible: there was driving rain outside, and as I arrived at the hotel, my trainers squelching, two housekeepers were hopelessly sweeping the shiny front steps with giant squeegees.
He was being helped in his training by Dylan Longbottom, a 48-year-old former big-wave pro with whom he’d been working since 2019, who has a reputation as one of the foremost board “shapers”: many of Nazaré’s best surfers ride Dylan boards.
Still, Formston wasn’t getting ahead of himself. “I’m not going to rush into it just because I’m excited,” he said. The conditions had to be right — and right for him — and there was work to do. Formston shows me the board he’ll be riding, shaped by Longbottom and borrowed from Lucas “Chumbo” Chianca: it is heavier and shorter than a traditional surfboard, because it need to cut into the face of the wave, not just skim across it, in order to hold him in the water when he’s travelling at speeds of 50 or 60 kmph.
He’s also aware that his opportunities aren’t endless. “I’m not that young anymore. I’ve got a couple more years to push the limits,” he says. He didn’t get started in elite surfing as early as he might have, and was already 38 when he competed in his first world championship. “I was just broken by all the things that had happened to me in my teens. But I think that also gives me the strength: knowing what I went through. Now, surfing a massive wave doesn’t feel like that much of a challenge.
Then one day in 2009, while riding the bus with a friend — a colleague at Optus, a telecommunications company where Formston still works, which is also his main sponsor — the friend mentioned that he was planning to cycle from Sydney to Melbourne. Formston responded, “I’ll come with you.” He ended up completing the solo bike ride — all 1,200km of it — which prompted Cycling Australia, the national governing body for the sport, to take note.
Surfing Nazaré is a personal thing, more or less; it’s just about beating himself. And the monster waves, of course. Let’s not forget about them.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
2023 S5000 field taking shapeJoey Mawson is taking aim at a third straight S5000 crown this year while Super2 regular Matt McLean will also join the open-wheel series.
Read more »
Beacon Pines dev: 'it's more fun for me to do something totally different each time'Hiding Spot Games' Matt Meyer kindly took the time to chat with us about wonderful adventure game Beacon Pines, how player feedback is so valued by the team, and why he was initially 'warned' not to expect glowing reviews on Xbox.
Read more »
Scientists Show How to Encode Secrets with ColorPlasmonic nanorods respond differently to light waves that move in the same direction, called polarized light. Depending on how they are positioned and how the light waves are polarized, a chiral response can occur.
Read more »
Childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and mother–infant neurophysiological and behavioral co-regulation during dyadic interaction: study protocol - BMC PsychologyBackground Mother’s childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms have a negative impact on mother and infant’s behaviors during dyadic interactions which may increase mother–infant neurophysiological and behavioral co-regulation difficulties, leading to dysregulated mother–infant interactions. This study was specifically designed to analyze: (1) the sociodemographic and obstetric factors associated with mother’s childbirth-related PTSD symptoms; (2) mother–infant neurophysiological functioning and behavioral co-regulation during dyadic interaction; (3) the impact of mother’s childbirth-related PTSD symptoms on neurophysiological and behavioral mother–infant co-regulation during dyadic interaction; (4) the moderator role of previous trauma on the impact of mother’s childbirth-related PTSD symptoms on neurophysiological and behavioral mother–infant co-regulation during dyadic interaction; and (5) the moderator role of comorbid symptoms of anxiety and depression on the impact of mother’s childbirth-related PTSD symptoms on neurophysiological and behavioral mother–infant co-regulation during dyadic interaction. Methods At least 250 mothers will be contacted in order to account for refusals and dropouts and guarantee at least 100 participating mother–infant dyads with all the assessment waves completed. The study has a longitudinal design with three assessment waves: (1) 1–3 days postpartum, (2) 8 weeks postpartum, and (3) 22 weeks postpartum. Between 1 and 3 days postpartum, mothers will report on-site on their sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics. At 8 weeks postpartum, mothers will complete online self-reported measures of birth trauma, previous trauma, childbirth-related PTSD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. At 22 weeks postpartum, mothers will complete online self-reported measures of childbirth-related PTSD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Mothers and infants will then be home-visited to observe and record their neurophysiological,
Read more »