Episode Details

#261 Matt Formston — Told He'd Never Play Sport Because He Was Blind. Now He's a 5x World Champion & World Record Big Wave Surfer at Nazaré

Season 1 Episode 261 Published 3 weeks, 1 day ago

Description

This week I sat down with Matt Formston AM, and I genuinely don't know where to start with this one.

At five years old, Matt was told he would go blind and never hold down a job or play sport. The doctors were half right. Matt did go blind. But everything else they said? He has spent his entire life proving wrong.

Matt is a four-time Adaptive Surfing World Champion, a World Champion cyclist, an Australian Paralympian, and holds the Guinness World Record for the largest wave ever surfed by any para-athlete in history. He has had an award-winning Netflix documentary made about him — The Blind Sea — and has just released his debut book Why Not? through Wiley, out now.

We talk about what it actually takes to trust someone with your life on the biggest waves in the world, the mental health challenges that don't always make the highlight reel, what resilience really looks like when the odds are stacked against you from the age of five, and why the word "can't" has never really stuck with Matt.

We also get into his next chapter — Matt has become a world class free diver and is heading to Tonga in August to freedive with humpback whales. Because of course he is.

This is one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the privilege of sitting down with. This one will change the way you think about limits.

In this episode we cover:

Being told at five he would go blind and never work or play sport
Four-time Adaptive Surfing World Champion and Guinness World Record holder at Nazaré
World Champion cyclist and Australian Paralympian
The Netflix documentary The Blind Sea
The role of trust on the biggest waves in the world
Mental health, resilience and life at the edge
His new book Why Not? and the message behind it
Freediving shipwrecks and swimming with humpback whales in Tonga

Matt's Book — Why Not?

https://www.amazon.com.au/Why-Not-Breaking-Limits-Business/dp/1394434626

Matt's Website

https://www.mattformston.com/

Follow Matt

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https://www.instagram.com/mattformston/?hl=en

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