Latest / The You Project / #1594 What Handicap? - Matt Formston

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#1594 What Handicap? - Matt Formston · The You Project

0:00
Speaker 1: I get are you bloody champions? Welcome to another Installing
0:03
Speaker 1: the Year project. It's Fatty Harps Craig Anthony Harper for
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Speaker 1: about the millionth time with Matt Formston, who's a fucking gun.
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Speaker 1: I've been reading about him, watching a little bit of him.
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Speaker 1: He wouldn't call himself that. I'll call him that. Goody, Matt,
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Speaker 1: how are you?
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Speaker 2: I'm good mate and thank you. I definitely wouldn't call myself.
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Speaker 3: That you're a gun son? You're a gun? Hey? Where
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Speaker 3: do we find you? Where you at?
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Speaker 2: I'm Matt Formston everywhere at Mattformston dot com.
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Speaker 3: Cool? But where are you at geographically?
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Speaker 2: Oh? Today, I'm home, which is one Brall on the
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Speaker 2: Central Coast, just north of Sydney.
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Speaker 1: And I see you've got looks like a dozen surfboards
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Speaker 1: behind you. Is that an actual? Are they actual? Is
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Speaker 1: that an actual room that you're in or is that
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Speaker 1: a graphic?
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Speaker 3: Yeah?
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Speaker 2: Now it's a room there my boards? Move on to wow, yeah.
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Speaker 3: That's a real wow. How many boards do you have?
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Speaker 2: I've got about fifteen boards at any one time. I've
1:06
Speaker 2: sort of had a rule at one point with my
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Speaker 2: wife that I could have ten. But that's just you know,
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Speaker 2: we've got a few bags with boards in different places,
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Speaker 2: and I don't really know the number, not to know
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Speaker 2: the number that I don't have to count it.
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Speaker 1: Of course, what's the what's the thinking behind so many?
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Speaker 1: Like I mean, I could understand three or four short board,
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Speaker 1: long board, a couple of I mean, what's.
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Speaker 3: The Is it just that you're greedy? What is that about.
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Speaker 2: Each board? See, there's three main characteristics the board. Obviously
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Speaker 2: you got your length and with and thickness are the
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Speaker 2: three main things that people would know about. But then
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Speaker 2: also you've got your rocker and your tail shape and
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Speaker 2: you know shape, so like I might have, I've got
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Speaker 2: probably about five boards that are all six foot long,
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Speaker 2: but they all work very very differently, and I'll use
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Speaker 2: them for different things. And then you got different so
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Speaker 2: I'm more pulled into Like a narrower tail will will
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Speaker 2: manage speed better, so I will wash off speed in
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Speaker 2: more powerful waves, whereas a wider tail will generate more speed.
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Speaker 2: So won't you probably use that in smaller waves or
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Speaker 2: fatter waves to generate speed rather than controlling speed. And
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Speaker 2: then more thickness up under the under the chest will
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Speaker 2: let your paddle better, but you might might catch as
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Speaker 2: well and more faster, more critical parts of all waves,
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Speaker 2: so you'd have it for like barrels and steeper waves.
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Speaker 2: I probably ever more pulled in nose which will be
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Speaker 2: harder to paddle. And then for smaller waves, I have
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Speaker 2: a wider nose which is easy to paddle and get
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Speaker 2: that entry speed for a small board. And then construction
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Speaker 2: that you'll have a POxy boards which are lighter, which
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Speaker 2: once work better in smaller waves, but then all use
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Speaker 2: peu probly ethane for more windy or choppy days because
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Speaker 2: it'll cut through the chop. And then for big waves surfing,
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Speaker 2: when I'm towing in on really big stuff, We've actually
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Speaker 2: got lead in the board. So like most strain board's
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Speaker 2: got five kilo of lead in it, and my board
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Speaker 2: for nazarree is probably got ten kilos of lead in it.
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Speaker 3: What what is the what's the I mean?
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Speaker 2: Is it is it?
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Speaker 1: Is the attraction just that it's awesome and it's fun.
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Speaker 1: Or is it for you? Is it therapy? Is it spiritual?
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Speaker 1: Is it social because you're doing it with mates? Or
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Speaker 1: is it all of the above?
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Speaker 2: Surfing in general, Yeah, surfing in general, all of the above. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: I prefer it to be with less mates these days.
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Speaker 2: The ocean is very, very crowded everywhere in the world now,
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Speaker 2: but you know that's the only part of it that's
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Speaker 2: getting more challenging.
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Speaker 1: This is a dumb question to a surfer, but is
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Speaker 1: there a favorite break for.
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Speaker 2: You anywhere where there's no other people? To my other
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Speaker 2: point around crowdedness, it's it's now like I've definitely got
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Speaker 2: credit break my favorite breaks around my local area. Look,
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Speaker 2: I'll call one of them out because it's just ruined now.
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Speaker 2: Like for most surfers, you ask them what their favite
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Speaker 2: break is, I'm not going to tell you because they
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Speaker 2: don't want to blow that spot up and everyone to
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Speaker 2: go there are There's a spot near us called box Head,
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Speaker 2: which is probably one of the longest left hand breaks
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Speaker 2: in Australia, maybe in the world. If it all connects up,
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Speaker 2: it's like a kilometer long. We used to have so
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Speaker 2: much fun there, but it's just every time there's a
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Speaker 2: swell now there's like three hundred peop than the water.
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Speaker 2: I basically don't surf there anymore.
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Speaker 3: It's not really worth going, is it.
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Speaker 1: So rather than me read something mate, tell my audience
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Speaker 1: a little bit about you give us a little bit
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Speaker 1: of the Matt Formstone bio, if you'd be so gracious.
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Speaker 2: So I'm blind. I've got three percent. I've got no
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Speaker 2: central vision in about three percent peripheral vision. So it's
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Speaker 2: just a big blur. I can see a little bit
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Speaker 2: of shapes and lines and maybe, like people say, how
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Speaker 2: far can you see? I can sort of see the
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Speaker 2: line of the horizon, so I can see a long
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Speaker 2: way away, but there's no detail, and then I can't
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Speaker 2: see him on facial features straight in front of me.
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Speaker 2: I am a paralympian. I was a world world champion cyclist,
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Speaker 2: world record holder as a cyclist. I'm a business business executive.
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Speaker 2: I run sustainability for enterprise. I'm a dad, really proud dad,
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Speaker 2: and a rugby league coach, junior footay coach, four time
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Speaker 2: world champion surfer, big wave world record holder, and just
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Speaker 2: just got a againess world record for the biggest wave
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Speaker 2: ever served by a blonde person. And that's enough.
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Speaker 3: That's enough. That'll do. Now you just bragging? How big
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Speaker 3: was that? How big was that wave? Mate?
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Speaker 2: Fifty one feet?
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Speaker 1: It's about five stories, So think everyone, think of a
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Speaker 1: five story building or a twenty story building in the
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Speaker 1: first five floors.
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Speaker 3: I don't even know.
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Speaker 1: How do you get your sense of spatial awareness?
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Speaker 3: Matt? How do you? How do you do that without vision?
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Speaker 3: How do you know where you are?
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Speaker 1: I mean, I know there's dumb questions, but they're probably understandable,
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Speaker 1: and I'm sure you've been asked a version of this,
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Speaker 1: so I apologize, but we've never chatted.
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Speaker 3: How do you know where you are? How do you
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Speaker 3: know where you're going? And how do you know where
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Speaker 3: you are on the wave?
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Speaker 2: It's a very reasonable question, but I'll say I'll answer it,
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Speaker 2: but I'll also say back to you, I'll preface it
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Speaker 2: with a question, how do you walk?
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Speaker 3: Automatically? Instinctively? Intuitive?
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Speaker 2: Yes? Right, So even people say how do you like?
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Speaker 2: It's the same sort of question. I've been surfing for
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Speaker 2: nearly forty years. It's like walking for me. I just
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Speaker 2: do it, so it's really hard to explain how I do.
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Speaker 2: And I've been surfing as a blind person for almost
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Speaker 2: forty years too, right, So there's that element. But now
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Speaker 2: that I've had to explain it a number of times,
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Speaker 2: I can feel the waves, so I can feel the
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Speaker 2: water traveling up my rail on my board, and but
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Speaker 2: by the way it's traveled, the way the water comes
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Speaker 2: up the rail of my board, and through you know,
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Speaker 2: we talk about ten thousand hours becoming an expert. I've
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Speaker 2: done one more than ten thousand hours of surfing. I
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Speaker 2: can feel I've had that many stacks and wipeouts and
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Speaker 2: got it wrong so many times. Like making mistakes a
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Speaker 2: really important part of becoming good at something, and I've
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Speaker 2: made lots of mistakes. So through that, I now can
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Speaker 2: feel with my board's doing. Like when I go down
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Speaker 2: the wave, my front foot's basically my cane. Like I
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Speaker 2: use a cane on land, sometimes my front foot becomes
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Speaker 2: my cane. I can feel my way down the wave,
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Speaker 2: then back up the wave, and the way the water
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Speaker 2: is tracking up the rail of my board. I know
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Speaker 2: of the book, but if the wave is going to
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Speaker 2: barrel so it's going to pitch over my head, or
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Speaker 2: if I need to get further out in front of it,
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Speaker 2: and then when I'm going up to do a turn
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Speaker 2: what it's doing. So I just feeling everything under my board,
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Speaker 2: and I'm just one hundred percent present, so I'm not
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Speaker 2: worried about the next section of just feeling what the
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Speaker 2: way's doing right now, and then for fifty foot waves,
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Speaker 2: I've got a few extra little bits that we've worked out,
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Speaker 2: so we use a whistle. So I'm obviously not paddling
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Speaker 2: into waves that big. I'm getting towed in with the
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Speaker 2: jet ski, so I'm on a tow rope. And then
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Speaker 2: when the boys know that's the wave they want me
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Speaker 2: to get into, they basically as I'm in the right spot,
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Speaker 2: they blow like we go really out orienteering whistle. They
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Speaker 2: blow that, and I just got to trust it. They've
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Speaker 2: got me in the right spot, and I pull the
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Speaker 2: rope and let go, and then it's the same process,
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Speaker 2: just feeling my way down the wave. But because I'm
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Speaker 2: going so fast on those waves, you're doing sort of
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Speaker 2: sixty five cornus an hour bit more. And as I
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Speaker 2: said before, I got about ten kilos, I let in
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Speaker 2: my board to hold my board in the water so
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Speaker 2: it doesn't start skipping out of the water. And then
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Speaker 2: they I was turning too late on those bigger waves,
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Speaker 2: so they worked out that they ride the corner of
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Speaker 2: the wave on the ski and watch me and they
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Speaker 2: blow the whistle a second time, and then I can
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Speaker 2: I turn and then they blow the whistle a third
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Speaker 2: time I kick out of the wave. So it's a
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Speaker 2: bit of feel and a bit of bit of information
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Speaker 2: from the boys with the whistle.
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Speaker 3: Okay, now that all makes sense.
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Speaker 1: Here's my only here's my only question about your analogy
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Speaker 1: between walking and surfing. If I was walking and blind,
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Speaker 1: I'd be bumping into shit all the time.
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Speaker 3: Mate.
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Speaker 1: I'm good at walking, but I'm not good at navigating
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Speaker 1: the world with my eyes closed.
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Speaker 2: And here's the here's the here's a bit of what
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Speaker 2: that won't won't you won't be intuitive for you, but
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Speaker 2: we'll click when I say it. Right, You're one hundred
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Speaker 2: percent right. So walking is a lot harder for me
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Speaker 2: than surfing. Wow, Because walking there's potholes and gutters and
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Speaker 2: cars and trees and low hanging branches and things that
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Speaker 2: just want to get me and hurt me all the time.
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Speaker 2: And I've forever got brushins and rolled ankles and I'm
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Speaker 2: forever injured. In the surf, I've hit a bit of
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Speaker 2: a bumper, fall off on them and water.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I guess in a way.
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Speaker 1: That the ocean is this is going to sound maybe
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Speaker 1: this is wrong, but I feel like it's more predictable
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Speaker 1: for you than terra FIRMA.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I wouldn't say more predictable, but just more forgiving.
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Speaker 2: Like I can slide, like as I go off, I
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Speaker 2: can slide and move my feet around. Whereas once I've
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Speaker 2: rolled my ankle or I've hit a toaball it's too late,
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Speaker 2: you know what I mean, smashed my touchin into a
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Speaker 2: table into a table. And but also I can go
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Speaker 2: full gas, like if I run anywhere, it's like unless
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Speaker 2: it's a controlled environment, run on the beach, and I
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Speaker 2: make sure I run into the locations where it's pretty safe.
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Speaker 2: Yeah it's bad, right, Like if I'm like snowboarding, for example,
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Speaker 2: I go snowboarding. If I get it wrong, I go
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Speaker 2: with the cliff. That's a really bad outcome. Or run
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Speaker 2: into a tree at high speed, very bad outcome. Whereas
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Speaker 2: I can go as fast and as crazy as I
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Speaker 2: like in the surf and as long as my body's
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Speaker 2: physically fit enough and strong enough, and I can, I can.
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Speaker 2: I've trained as a big wave surfer. I've trained to
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Speaker 2: hold my breath. I can stand the water for almost
9:46
Speaker 2: six minutes. So you know, I've got all those physical
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Speaker 2: components that are no different to me than they are
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Speaker 2: enable body big wave surfer. I'm just probably going to
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Speaker 2: get it wrong more than they do because I can't see.
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Speaker 1: Does your missus never say to you listen, squeeze and
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Speaker 1: that's no fucking snowboarding for you.
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Speaker 2: She used to, but she realized when she does that,
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Speaker 2: it does it's I then probably go bigger. So which
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Speaker 2: I'm still trying to get that out of that little
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Speaker 2: teenage brain out of my body that has that rebellion.
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Speaker 2: But look, I'm toying with the idea of doing a
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Speaker 2: free diving world record at the moment because of that
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Speaker 2: breath capacity I have from big wave surfing. And she's like,
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Speaker 2: can we not do this? But it's, you know, it's
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Speaker 2: just who I am. I'm just inquisitive about what's next.
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Speaker 3: How old are you? How old are you?
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Speaker 2: I turned forty six yesterday.
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Speaker 3: Wow, you look amazing, dude, Happy birthday.
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Speaker 2: Thank you.
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Speaker 1: It's funny speaking of people who love the ocean, right.
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Speaker 1: So two of my friends are Trevor Handy, who I'm
10:42
Speaker 1: sure you know of, ye and Tammy van Wissa, who
10:45
Speaker 1: you might not know of.
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Speaker 3: Do you know who Tammy van Wissa is? Yes?
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Speaker 1: So I chatted with her yesterday on the show and
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Speaker 1: I used to train her. Someone excise physiologists, but I
10:57
Speaker 1: used to train her and she was for quite a
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Speaker 1: long time the world's best female endurance swimmer swimmer and
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Speaker 1: both both Trevor and Tammy talk about how therapeutic the
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Speaker 1: ocean is for them, like it's almost you know, meditative, spiritual,
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Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it. Do you feel like
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Speaker 1: your home when you're in the ocean?
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Speaker 2: Does it make for sure? I can't be away from it?
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Speaker 2: Like when I was when I was a psych pro cyclist,
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Speaker 2: I'd spend months in Europe racing in like very landlocked areas,
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Speaker 2: and as I was getting deeper into that time, I
11:33
Speaker 2: could feel my psychology and I suppose my motion and
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Speaker 2: everything just needing that that that top up from the ocean.
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Speaker 2: And so yeah, I just now I get it every day.
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Speaker 2: I just need it. And it's anything like I went
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Speaker 2: ice skating with my kids yesterday and that's always playoffs
11:47
Speaker 2: ice hockey as well. But it's still water, right, It's
11:49
Speaker 2: the something to do with that, like it's frozen water,
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Speaker 2: but it's it's water, and I think and anything to
11:52
Speaker 2: do with the water sport, I love it because it's
11:54
Speaker 2: just the feel of flow and water. You know, it
11:57
Speaker 2: doesn't have tables, so it's always fun.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that is true. Yeah, nice observation. Tell me about
12:05
Speaker 1: So I'm fascinated with high performance. I talk about it
12:07
Speaker 1: all the time, and I've worked with lots of teams
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Speaker 1: and athletes and organizations and stuff. What's what's your kind
12:16
Speaker 1: of And I'm sure it's varied, but in terms of
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Speaker 1: sleep and recovery and training and nutrition and you know,
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Speaker 1: optimizing your physiology, give us a bit of an insight
12:26
Speaker 1: into how you do all that.
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Speaker 2: So right now, look, it's totally tuned back when I
12:33
Speaker 2: was a cyclist, as you know, that is a fitness sport.
12:36
Speaker 2: Like there's no there's very There's not a lot of
12:39
Speaker 2: technique involved. It's whoever is the fittest, whoever has the
12:41
Speaker 2: most strength and power to weight ratio, they're basically going
12:44
Speaker 2: to win because obviously there's technique involved. But when you're
12:47
Speaker 2: in the top twenty in the world, everyone's got similar technique.
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Speaker 2: It just comes down to fitness. So when I was
12:52
Speaker 2: doing that sport, it was crazy, like I I'd have
12:55
Speaker 2: to be in bed by nine o'clock every night to
12:56
Speaker 2: get up and train every day. It's full fifteen six
12:58
Speaker 2: days a week doing sort of one hundred and twenty
13:01
Speaker 2: k's ish to two hundred k's a morning, and then
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Speaker 2: I do gym and I was like seventy three. I'm
13:08
Speaker 2: about ninety kilos now as a surfer, and you know,
13:12
Speaker 2: I'm a little bit more body fault that I was
13:14
Speaker 2: carrying as a cyclist, but I'm pretty fit human. I
13:16
Speaker 2: was racing as a cyclist at seventy three kilos. They're
13:20
Speaker 2: just not eating at all. But while I was seventy
13:23
Speaker 2: three kilos, I was lead pressing four hundred and forty kilos.
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Speaker 2: The power to weight ratio was crazy.
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Speaker 3: That's ridiculous.
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Speaker 1: And forty kilos so that's like forty five degree leg
13:32
Speaker 1: press plate loaded.
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Speaker 2: Was it correct? Yeah, like every every twenty and twenty
13:36
Speaker 2: five kilo plate in the gym bo basically, Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Wow, that's incredible. And how tall are you? I'm trying
13:43
Speaker 1: to figure out what that ninety kilo took? Six foot
13:46
Speaker 1: so six ft and ninety so, like you're a strong,
13:50
Speaker 1: solid lump of an athlete. Like you're not skinny, You're
13:54
Speaker 1: not gargantuan, but you're definitely not skinny.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: No, I'm not the smallest human getting around, But I'm
14:01
Speaker 2: definitely a presence.
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Speaker 1: So what what is your you know, when we talk
14:08
Speaker 1: about what we do?
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Speaker 3: You know?
14:10
Speaker 1: So whether or not like for me, I started a
14:12
Speaker 1: PhD at fifty six, So I do podcasting, I do
14:15
Speaker 1: corporate speaking.
14:16
Speaker 3: I've been training. I'm sixty.
14:17
Speaker 1: I've been training in a gym every day in my
14:20
Speaker 1: life since I was fourteen.
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Speaker 3: Blah blah blah.
14:22
Speaker 1: So they're the things that they're my wat's, But I'm
14:25
Speaker 1: interested in the why behind the.
14:26
Speaker 3: What, like what what's your what's your why?
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Speaker 1: With the pushing, the striving, the raising the bar, the
14:33
Speaker 1: trying new things, the danger, the uncertainty, the vulnerability.
14:39
Speaker 3: What's the driver for all of that? Do you know?
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Speaker 2: Yeah? So it's evolved for me over the years. So
14:45
Speaker 2: definitely when I was younger, it definitely was too There
14:50
Speaker 2: was the f you to the world to say, can
14:52
Speaker 2: you keep telling me? Because I got told, you know,
14:53
Speaker 2: when I was five, and my parents got told, your
14:55
Speaker 2: child's got disability, he has to go to a school
14:57
Speaker 2: for kids with special needs. He won't get an education,
15:01
Speaker 2: he won't have friends, he won't play sport, he won't
15:03
Speaker 2: have a career, all these things. That was the prognosis.
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Speaker 3: Terrible what kind of terrible fucking input is that from people.
15:12
Speaker 2: Who says that, Well, all the experts, so that you know,
15:16
Speaker 2: the specialists, adoctors, the school principal, the school teachers. So
15:20
Speaker 2: my parents had to fight that trend. And and I
15:24
Speaker 2: was in a mainstream school and not like he has
15:25
Speaker 2: to leave the mainstream school, and like, but he's doing
15:27
Speaker 2: okay at the mainstream school, so why does he have
15:29
Speaker 2: to leave? So I was lucky that my parents had
15:31
Speaker 2: that within them like myself. My dad was a sales
15:34
Speaker 2: and marketing director, so he's used to having challenging conversations
15:36
Speaker 2: with people. And basically so I stayed in that school.
15:39
Speaker 2: So I went through and I was one of the
15:40
Speaker 2: not many kids with disabilities went through in the eighties.
15:44
Speaker 2: They were just kids with disability didn't go through mainstream schooling.
15:46
Speaker 2: And because of that, the teachers weren't set up for me,
15:48
Speaker 2: so they you know, it was it was always hard,
15:50
Speaker 2: but there was always this thing like you can't. And
15:52
Speaker 2: I played rugby league for multiple years. I ended up
15:54
Speaker 2: playing representative rugby union. I played ice hockey to a
15:58
Speaker 2: representative level. But every time I start one of those sports,
16:01
Speaker 2: people like the blind kid can't play, Like this can't, can't, can't.
16:04
Speaker 2: So the whole world was always saying you can't do it.
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Speaker 2: So my brain, my whole, my whole psychology is I
16:09
Speaker 2: can do it. I'll prove you wrong, you know. And
16:12
Speaker 2: that was that was my that was my why back then,
16:15
Speaker 2: and that carried on and then I and then I
16:16
Speaker 2: got really sick when I was about sixteen, got glandular
16:18
Speaker 2: female was in bed for six weeks and the doctor said,
16:21
Speaker 2: if you play footy so that that time was rugby league,
16:24
Speaker 2: ruby union, sorry, and ice hockey either or and you
16:27
Speaker 2: get a stick to the ribs or a big tackle
16:29
Speaker 2: one of the ribs, that you could have a ruptured'splain
16:30
Speaker 2: because of my honest. So I missed the whole season.
16:33
Speaker 2: Then I couldn't I have had all these processes I
16:34
Speaker 2: used around following the ball and hearing the park go
16:37
Speaker 2: across the ice, and I lost all that, And then
16:39
Speaker 2: the kids got better and stronger, and I just couldn't
16:41
Speaker 2: keep up anymore. So I found partying and I found
16:44
Speaker 2: you know, I found drugs, and I just I went
16:46
Speaker 2: down this really toxic spiral. It was it got into
16:48
Speaker 2: like I was fighting because I've got bullied at school.
16:50
Speaker 2: So My way of dealing with the bullies was to
16:52
Speaker 2: bash them. So I broke kids fingers and say how
16:55
Speaker 2: many fingers? And my holding upsides, so how many things
16:56
Speaker 2: you want to keep? All this really toxic stuff. And
17:00
Speaker 2: that went off about ten years and then I found
17:02
Speaker 2: my way out and I was in my late twenties.
17:04
Speaker 2: I basically got my first executive role in corporate. Within
17:08
Speaker 2: a year, I started writing for Australia, met my wife
17:10
Speaker 2: and it all just turned around because I decided I
17:12
Speaker 2: took ownership of my life in instead of trying to
17:14
Speaker 2: say f you to the world and prove everybody wrong.
17:17
Speaker 2: It's just like what I took ownership of what I
17:18
Speaker 2: want to do. Who do I want to be? Like?
17:19
Speaker 2: I wasn't That wasn't the human I wanted to be
17:21
Speaker 2: on I knew I could, I could be better for
17:23
Speaker 2: myself and for the world. And since that time, now
17:25
Speaker 2: it's about best being inquisitive about what's possible for me.
17:27
Speaker 2: And because of that that ten year hiatus, I'm like,
17:30
Speaker 2: I only died right. I was lucky I didn't end
17:32
Speaker 2: up dead or in jail, and because of that, I've
17:36
Speaker 2: got this now, I've got this perspective of life like,
17:40
Speaker 2: I don't want to go back to that. I know
17:42
Speaker 2: how bad that is. And that's what I suppose why
17:43
Speaker 2: I can train as hard as I do because I
17:45
Speaker 2: did train hard as an athlete when I was younger.
17:46
Speaker 2: I had to train harder than all the kids that
17:48
Speaker 2: could see to be the fittest kid on the field.
17:50
Speaker 2: And then I know, now you know that what brought
17:53
Speaker 2: that toxic party life is like as well, and I
17:56
Speaker 2: don't want to be part of that. So I just
17:58
Speaker 2: just pushed myself. That's just being inquisitive. So I take
18:02
Speaker 2: on this next journey of free diving. It's just because
18:03
Speaker 2: I'm inquisitive about what's possible from them and what's possible
18:05
Speaker 2: for human beings.
18:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, and with all of that, I love that. I
18:10
Speaker 1: love that turnaround. I love that story. Was there a
18:14
Speaker 1: was it just a cumulative thing, Matt over ten years
18:17
Speaker 1: of going this is not fucking working. Or was there
18:20
Speaker 1: a light bulb moment? Was there an epiphany an event?
18:25
Speaker 2: There was? There was no light bulb moment, but there
18:27
Speaker 2: was there was light bulb moments. So there was one
18:29
Speaker 2: time when I, and I tell this story very often,
18:32
Speaker 2: but there was one time when I, like I woke
18:34
Speaker 2: up after after being like a blackout of partying way
18:38
Speaker 2: too hard and not knowing what was going on, and
18:40
Speaker 2: I had I had like BRUI MT knuckles and had
18:41
Speaker 2: blood alab me, which wasn't mine. That was one moment
18:44
Speaker 2: in my early twenties. And then I had a few
18:46
Speaker 2: relationships that didn't weren't successful. And you know, when you
18:49
Speaker 2: look at it at the time, it's easy to blame
18:50
Speaker 2: someone else but them. When you look into it, you're level.
18:52
Speaker 2: I was, you know, there's two people in that in
18:53
Speaker 2: that relationship, so there was there wasn't. And then my work,
18:56
Speaker 2: like my career was sort of stagnating. And then I
18:59
Speaker 2: was like, you know, if I take ownership and I
19:01
Speaker 2: change these behaviors, I can be a better man, be
19:05
Speaker 2: more successful, animal, happy man. And I wasn't happy, you know,
19:07
Speaker 2: and I really wanted to have I wanted to become
19:09
Speaker 2: a dad, I wanted to be a husband, and that
19:13
Speaker 2: were things that really important to me. And I knew
19:14
Speaker 2: that I needed to change things in me to be
19:16
Speaker 2: to make that a successful thing. So you know, I
19:19
Speaker 2: made those changes over a couple of years. And then
19:22
Speaker 2: once I made a few of the minor changes around
19:25
Speaker 2: stop partying and having goals like once I had that
19:28
Speaker 2: goal of writing for Australia. That was really good because
19:30
Speaker 2: it changed that I couldn't then go drinking, I couldn't
19:33
Speaker 2: go do these things because then I've set my training backs.
19:35
Speaker 2: So they were they were just things that all clicked
19:38
Speaker 2: in that all helped me get there really quickly in the.
19:41
Speaker 1: Middle of you know, like the mix of ambition and
19:45
Speaker 1: anger and dealing with the stuff that you were dealing
19:49
Speaker 1: in that ten year period. Was there ever moments of
19:53
Speaker 1: and if there was, I would understand, because I think
19:56
Speaker 1: I would.
19:56
Speaker 3: But was there ever moments of self pity like woe was?
20:01
Speaker 2: Yeah? I'm sure there was. I don't really remember it,
20:06
Speaker 2: but yeah, I think definitely through the relationship breakdowns there
20:10
Speaker 2: was a lot of that you know, why why am
20:12
Speaker 2: I having to do this? You know, you know, why
20:14
Speaker 2: am not good enough? All that type of stuff. Yeah,
20:17
Speaker 2: I'm sure there was in my career as well, like
20:19
Speaker 2: where you know I looked because well, to be honest,
20:22
Speaker 2: the world not a not set up for people with disabilities.
20:25
Speaker 2: I'm a massive advocate now and I work a lot
20:28
Speaker 2: in the disability space, on the chair of the Disability
20:30
Speaker 2: Network at Optice and through that I've got a really
20:34
Speaker 2: good lens of what what disability looks like in the
20:36
Speaker 2: corporate world, and like at the moment, there's a huge
20:39
Speaker 2: gap between the amount of people with that don't have
20:42
Speaker 2: a disability to do a disability with employment like where
20:45
Speaker 2: it's it's a huge gap. So the opportunity to start there.
20:48
Speaker 2: But like in the corporate environment, a lot of the
20:51
Speaker 2: systems don't work, so there's an opportunity to just go
20:53
Speaker 2: whole is me, you know, like it's not working for me,
20:56
Speaker 2: so I'm not going to do it. But but there
20:59
Speaker 2: was obviously there just you know, through that whole change
21:01
Speaker 2: a period, I was like, you know what it is,
21:02
Speaker 2: what it is, So I'm just gonna have to work
21:04
Speaker 2: with what it is. We work with the tools I've
21:06
Speaker 2: got and do the best I can. And I used
21:10
Speaker 2: to hide my disability so when I first, you know,
21:12
Speaker 2: were a first couple of jobs, I wouldn't tell people
21:13
Speaker 2: that I was blind because I can get around a
21:15
Speaker 2: little bit and sort of fake it. Do you make it?
21:19
Speaker 2: But then I realized, you know what, that's actually my
21:21
Speaker 2: strength because I lead with So I'm on a few
21:24
Speaker 2: boards and now like I'm going for very very senior roles.
21:27
Speaker 2: When I'm going for those roles, I'm going straight in
21:28
Speaker 2: with I've got disability, but despite because of my disability,
21:31
Speaker 2: I'm a very good problem solver. I've got huge amounts
21:34
Speaker 2: of resilience. I've got all these attributes that I've built
21:36
Speaker 2: because of my disability. So I lead with my disability
21:38
Speaker 2: now rather than hiding it. And that's been a big
21:41
Speaker 2: mind shift for me, and I try and help. You know,
21:43
Speaker 2: other people use that to go you know, but just
21:46
Speaker 2: your difference actually makes you better and as market as
21:49
Speaker 2: there any business person you talk to, they'd say, oh,
21:52
Speaker 2: when we need like what's the differentiator? Like every car
21:54
Speaker 2: is the same, every TV is the same, but what's
21:56
Speaker 2: your differentiator? But then, as humans, we hide our difference
21:59
Speaker 2: rather than leading that difference. So I think, you know,
22:01
Speaker 2: that's something that we wanted to do better hundred percent.
22:04
Speaker 1: And I mean I think about you navigating the world
22:06
Speaker 1: with pretty much no vision. Like you said, you're constantly
22:10
Speaker 1: solving problems. But it also means like problem solving is
22:14
Speaker 1: a form of creativity, right, So you're always having to
22:17
Speaker 1: think outside the box, whereas the rest of us just
22:22
Speaker 1: walk across the road unconsciously or do whatever or open
22:25
Speaker 1: the gates, shut the gates, slide the bolt, da da
22:27
Speaker 1: da da, like all these things that for us are
22:30
Speaker 1: unconscious and you know, without thought.
22:34
Speaker 3: Like for you, that's a very different prospect.
22:36
Speaker 1: And I just, yeah, I agree with you, and I'm
22:39
Speaker 1: not saying that to just endorse you, but I think,
22:42
Speaker 1: you know, there's some research out recently that people with
22:46
Speaker 1: dyslexia are three times more likely to become millionaires than
22:51
Speaker 1: people without. Because people with dyslexia, obviously, you know, can't read,
22:58
Speaker 1: either can't read at all times or can't read well
23:02
Speaker 1: at all, so they have to navigate, and of course
23:05
Speaker 1: you too, but they have to navigate this world that
23:08
Speaker 1: is to an extent dependent dependent on.
23:10
Speaker 3: Being able to read shit, and they can't.
23:13
Speaker 1: So they end up being, like you, really adaptable, flexible,
23:17
Speaker 1: able to improvise, adapt overcome, survive, thrive in the middle
23:21
Speaker 1: of pressure, and deal with all of the atypicalness of
23:27
Speaker 1: existing in a world where you're not like most people
23:30
Speaker 1: in the room.
23:31
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I think that communication.
23:34
Speaker 2: Is a key part of that too. Now, I just
23:35
Speaker 2: think communications keep out of that too. I are a
23:37
Speaker 2: lot of sales teams and a lot of the time
23:39
Speaker 2: people just want to talk to people, Whereas I think
23:42
Speaker 2: if you've got this lext or something, you become a
23:44
Speaker 2: very good listener because that's your only way that you
23:45
Speaker 2: can consume information. So and I think that's a key
23:49
Speaker 2: skill that a lot of us don't have. And we
23:51
Speaker 2: because we can read or I can't read, but because
23:53
Speaker 2: other people can read, they just go, I'm not going
23:55
Speaker 2: to focus now because they can just read the document,
23:58
Speaker 2: Whereas if you don't have to do that, you have
23:59
Speaker 2: to you have to focus on what's happening and understand
24:03
Speaker 2: the concept. So if you're not understanding, you ask questions,
24:06
Speaker 2: which makes you're very good communicator.
24:09
Speaker 1: I also feel Matt like doing this stuff that you've
24:13
Speaker 1: had to do, Like you can't wake up tomorrow and go,
24:15
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not going to do blindness today.
24:17
Speaker 3: Fuck it.
24:17
Speaker 1: You know everybody else can go, fuck I'm not going
24:21
Speaker 1: to the gym, or I'm not going to do my run,
24:23
Speaker 1: or you know, a friend of mine, Joel's a quadriplegic,
24:26
Speaker 1: and I always talk about him and he can't get
24:28
Speaker 1: up today and go, you know what, fuck quadriplegia.
24:30
Speaker 3: I'm not doing it, Like.
24:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, fuck it, I'm just going to walk today, I
24:35
Speaker 1: can't be bothered being qudriplegic, right.
24:39
Speaker 3: And the same with you.
24:40
Speaker 1: But like when you, when you don't have the option
24:44
Speaker 1: of easy, where you have to do hard, then you
24:49
Speaker 1: become strong and resilient, you know, almost just as a
24:52
Speaker 1: byproduct of your day to day function. Whereas at the moment,
24:57
Speaker 1: I don't know what you think about this, I think
24:59
Speaker 1: to an extent because of the great modelly coddling of
25:02
Speaker 1: the twenty first century, where we don't want anyone to
25:07
Speaker 1: participate in a sport where they might lose. We don't
25:10
Speaker 1: want to give out, you know, we don't want to fuck.
25:12
Speaker 1: Don't let them, don't let's not keep score, you know,
25:16
Speaker 1: let's let's nerve the world. Don't let them climb because
25:20
Speaker 1: they might hurt them, Like I feel like, you know,
25:23
Speaker 1: in an intelligent and a caring way, like a motcom
25:28
Speaker 1: of pain and discomfort and uncertainty is good.
25:31
Speaker 2: Right, don't get me started on this topic, mate.
25:34
Speaker 1: Oh, come on, let's hear it. Son fucking open the door. Bro,
25:38
Speaker 1: Come on, well, boy.
25:42
Speaker 2: My boys play league and my son, my oldest son's ten.
25:45
Speaker 2: He's his team last year was undefeated. They and then
25:49
Speaker 2: everyone knows the score. This whole bass about not keeping
25:52
Speaker 2: the score. Every parent, every child, everyone knows the score.
25:56
Speaker 2: They go to school and they get marked at school,
25:58
Speaker 2: they get graded at school. They know who's the best reader,
26:00
Speaker 2: who's not the best reader. But then they go into
26:02
Speaker 2: the sporting environment, they're not allowed to be compared to
26:04
Speaker 2: each other. Yes, and all my son wants to do
26:06
Speaker 2: is win a premiership. He all he wants to know
26:09
Speaker 2: is what the other teams are doing. All the other
26:10
Speaker 2: kids all they want and there's just been taken away
26:12
Speaker 2: from them. It's horrendous and it takes away resilience. And
26:16
Speaker 2: then they didn't know when they're going to introduce it.
26:18
Speaker 2: They introduce so now for regular argue, they've taken it
26:20
Speaker 2: from under tens. It used to be undertends and now
26:22
Speaker 2: they've moved up to Thirteen's what's one of the hardest
26:24
Speaker 2: things you have to do with in your life, transitioning
26:27
Speaker 2: from from primary school to high school. So they're not
26:30
Speaker 2: just taking those children that they're having to do with
26:32
Speaker 2: going to high school and that transition, they're going to
26:34
Speaker 2: make them learn about losing when they're going to high school.
26:37
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, it's just crazy.
26:40
Speaker 1: And also you think about like when you step out
26:43
Speaker 1: of that bubble mate. Yeah, okay, now you're now you're
26:45
Speaker 1: getting a job or you're going to university. By the way,
26:48
Speaker 1: no one gives a fuck about you or your feelings. Right,
26:51
Speaker 1: It's not your boss's job, or your university lecture's job,
26:55
Speaker 1: or the world's job to manage your feelings and emotions.
26:58
Speaker 1: And if we're constantly running into ference and trying to
27:02
Speaker 1: protect somebody's feelings until they're thirty, fucking we're not allowing
27:07
Speaker 1: them to build resilience.
27:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, this is one of the things. Back to
27:12
Speaker 2: my diagnosis, my dad was having So when I start
27:14
Speaker 2: first started playing rugby league, Dad's having a beer with
27:16
Speaker 2: a couple of mates and they said, oh, does Matt
27:18
Speaker 2: have any mates that want to play because we're short
27:20
Speaker 2: on the team. This is like an underfile. I was
27:22
Speaker 2: under six's team and Dad said, well made your play.
27:25
Speaker 2: And instead of those dads going good on you, my
27:27
Speaker 2: dad's name is Don. Good on your Don for letting
27:29
Speaker 2: giving your son with a disability opportunity to play and
27:32
Speaker 2: you have a try it if he files in you
27:34
Speaker 2: know whatever. Instead of doing that, they went, oh, no, Don,
27:36
Speaker 2: your son's blind, like he can't play. You're putting him
27:38
Speaker 2: in harm's way and making him out to be the
27:40
Speaker 2: bad parents. That was the whole tone of narrative throughout
27:43
Speaker 2: my whole childhood was when my parents gave me opportunity
27:46
Speaker 2: to do things, the whole community would say, you're bad
27:49
Speaker 2: parents because you're putting him in harm's way. Wowow, But
27:52
Speaker 2: we all know now that that we should know that
27:56
Speaker 2: has set me up to be the athlete that I am.
27:57
Speaker 2: Like I've been dominant in multiple sports because I've got
28:01
Speaker 2: to do to play against people that were ever bodied
28:04
Speaker 2: and then like the contrast of that as well as
28:06
Speaker 2: I then went on to play representative rugby union on
28:09
Speaker 2: the northern beach of the Sydney which is like one
28:11
Speaker 2: of the brooding grounds for rugby union in a time
28:13
Speaker 2: when rugby was very successful. So like, when you think
28:17
Speaker 2: about who all those other kids that are turning up
28:19
Speaker 2: to rep triyouts, how the hell did the kid that's
28:21
Speaker 2: got at the time five percent vision get selected over
28:24
Speaker 2: other kids? Because I wanted it more and I was
28:27
Speaker 2: more focused on my job. I knew what my job
28:28
Speaker 2: was and I wasn't trying to be everything to everyone
28:30
Speaker 2: and you know, float around, which just shows you know,
28:36
Speaker 2: if you give, if you give an opportunities and you
28:38
Speaker 2: take them, then the world opens up for you. If
28:40
Speaker 2: you don't take your opportunities, or if you know, if
28:41
Speaker 2: you're hide away in the corner, or if you protect
28:43
Speaker 2: people from what might happen, they're never going to flourish
28:46
Speaker 2: and they're never gonna have those experiences to fail and learn.
28:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I love it. So you've got a movie.
28:54
Speaker 1: Is it a movie or a doco? You've got coming
28:55
Speaker 1: out soon?
28:57
Speaker 2: It's a doco, it's a documentary. It's a nine. It's
28:59
Speaker 2: a full featured documentary movie. It's we actually launched at
29:03
Speaker 2: the Sydney Film Festival. We just did two screenings, all
29:06
Speaker 2: sold out there. We're getting great reviews. Then we go
29:09
Speaker 2: like we go cinemas nationally on the fifteenth of August.
29:12
Speaker 2: But we're so the premiere release will be at the
29:14
Speaker 2: Sydney Opera House on the eleventh of August. So that's
29:16
Speaker 2: all all happening right now. It's called The Blind c Sea.
29:20
Speaker 3: The Blind ce Oh that's great, mate. And how did
29:24
Speaker 3: that come about? Who filmed it? Whose idea was it?
29:27
Speaker 2: What?
29:27
Speaker 3: How long did it take?
29:30
Speaker 2: So it was filmed by a company called Brick Studios.
29:33
Speaker 2: The directors Daniel Finec or Finec. We've been we've worked
29:38
Speaker 2: together on a few little small clips, like through the
29:40
Speaker 2: Rio Paralympics, and people have been saying, you need a movie,
29:44
Speaker 2: you need to do a movie, and you know, it's
29:47
Speaker 2: one of those things people said, you need to make
29:49
Speaker 2: a movie, but your life it's a bit of a
29:50
Speaker 2: you know, you laugh and good good on you, and
29:53
Speaker 2: then look at an opportunity to come up. We got
29:55
Speaker 2: some funding so said let's do this and then we
29:58
Speaker 2: were sort so the first forty five it's a ninety
30:00
Speaker 2: minute film. The first forty five minutes is my backstory
30:03
Speaker 2: and my parents telling that the stuff we've talked about today,
30:06
Speaker 2: and then must equip it on my cycling career and
30:08
Speaker 2: break ended up breaking a world record which is an
30:10
Speaker 2: able body world record for four kilometers on the goor droone.
30:13
Speaker 2: And then it transitions into surfing, and the last forty
30:17
Speaker 2: five minutes is Nazaree so the big wave, which is
30:19
Speaker 2: the biggest wave in the world and finishes up with
30:22
Speaker 2: me breaking the Guinness World Record for a big wave
30:24
Speaker 2: for a parasurfer. So that's the short and long of it.
30:28
Speaker 2: But yeah, he's got some great.
30:31
Speaker 1: It's called the Blind Sea. Everyone's going to be in
30:33
Speaker 1: cinemas August thirteen. I was talking yesterday, as I said
30:36
Speaker 1: to you earlier about with Tammy van Wisa, and she
30:41
Speaker 1: swam just under two and a half thousand kilometers. Mate,
30:46
Speaker 1: she swam the Murray River right now, didn't It took
30:51
Speaker 1: her one hundred and I think it was one hundred
30:55
Speaker 1: and thirteen days. She broke the record by I think
30:58
Speaker 1: thirty one days if I'm not right right, which was
31:03
Speaker 1: held by a bloke. She swam in one hundred and
31:06
Speaker 1: thirteen days. She did not have one day off. That's
31:09
Speaker 1: the condition of the record. You can't have any days off.
31:14
Speaker 1: Fucking brown snakes, tiger snakes, locks, mud infections like it's
31:20
Speaker 1: it's not a dirty river, but it's a muddy river,
31:22
Speaker 1: so it's dirty. It's fucking horrible. And I've trained lots
31:27
Speaker 1: of athletes, but I reckon you're in the same category
31:30
Speaker 1: of all the And I've worked with AFL teams, I've
31:33
Speaker 1: worked with Olympians, I've worked with you know, fighters and
31:37
Speaker 1: MMA athletes, and she's the toughest athlete I've ever trained, right,
31:42
Speaker 1: just in terms of and dealing with, you know, like
31:45
Speaker 1: she swam lock Ness, which is fucking freezing forty kilometers, right,
31:52
Speaker 1: and yeah, she's just the toughest, the toughest athlete I've
31:57
Speaker 1: ever worked with. But I'm thinking, did you say the
32:01
Speaker 1: four k's.
32:02
Speaker 3: On the velodrome that you yeah?
32:04
Speaker 1: That I mean people who don't like as an x
32:08
Speaker 1: I sign, that's just fucking Firstly, how many minutes is that?
32:13
Speaker 2: We did? Four to eleven? Four minutes? So that's just
32:16
Speaker 2: so that's.
32:17
Speaker 1: Just two hundred and fifty one seconds of pain, Like
32:21
Speaker 1: that's just well, maybe not the first ten, but from there,
32:24
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you deal with getting in that
32:29
Speaker 1: level of discomfort? I'd be interested to know you lactate threshold,
32:33
Speaker 1: by the way, that would that would have been just
32:37
Speaker 1: four minutes of agony, wouldn't it.
32:40
Speaker 2: Look it's the first three minutes aren't too bad because
32:44
Speaker 2: you're sort of building up, you're staying within your threshold.
32:46
Speaker 2: I mean, and when I say not too bad, not
32:48
Speaker 2: too bad as an elite athlete, so the norm of
32:50
Speaker 2: him being it would probably be unmanageable. But when you've
32:54
Speaker 2: trained at that level and you never do foks as
32:57
Speaker 2: a when you train to that level, you never do
33:01
Speaker 2: a four k effort ever in training because your body
33:04
Speaker 2: then your body remembers how bad it is and won't
33:06
Speaker 2: do it. So you're tricking your body, so you trick
33:08
Speaker 2: your Only the longest effort you ever do is three
33:10
Speaker 2: k's in training and then that last k and then
33:13
Speaker 2: you do longer rides, so you do one hundred and
33:15
Speaker 2: twenty k rides or whatever, but you never do four
33:17
Speaker 2: gas four k's until you do it, until you do
33:19
Speaker 2: it to your race. And they say every time you
33:23
Speaker 2: do one of those, you basically take it because the
33:24
Speaker 2: amount of stress it puts on your heart, it takes
33:25
Speaker 2: about a year off your life. That's how that's how
33:28
Speaker 2: bad it is. So you're you're done so once and
33:32
Speaker 2: once you train to that level as well, like you
33:35
Speaker 2: you go so deep that you can't actually you squeeze
33:39
Speaker 2: everything out of your body. You can't get yourself off
33:40
Speaker 2: the bike. So we like finish the effort and then
33:42
Speaker 2: we just roll around and we need like there's twenties
33:45
Speaker 2: and mechanics that actually help us stop and get off
33:47
Speaker 2: the bike. It's that's that's the level you get to.
33:49
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was it was painful, but the emotional
33:53
Speaker 2: part that got through me through it. My My oldest
33:54
Speaker 2: son was six weeks old at the time, so I
33:57
Speaker 2: was away my son and my wife was looking after
34:01
Speaker 2: our baby, and I was, you know, as that started,
34:04
Speaker 2: that last minute was hurting. I was just like, and
34:06
Speaker 2: the thing about my parents, what they went through and
34:08
Speaker 2: their kids and that just you know, that stuff just
34:11
Speaker 2: still gets me emotional talking about it, but that I
34:13
Speaker 2: might just suck it up, mate, get it done. And
34:16
Speaker 2: that was the thing. We beat, like, we beat the
34:17
Speaker 2: Spanish and it was in the heat. And the world
34:21
Speaker 2: record that day was four minutes sixteen because it was
34:24
Speaker 2: on a on a tandem. Obviously for people that are
34:27
Speaker 2: older would know that the tanna just used to race
34:29
Speaker 2: at the Olympics, not just in the Paralympics. So that
34:32
Speaker 2: was that was an able body world record, which was
34:34
Speaker 2: four sixteen, and we raced that attitude and that morning
34:37
Speaker 2: the Spanish went out into the four twelve, so four
34:41
Speaker 2: minutes and twelve seconds. So we're just like, we're going
34:43
Speaker 2: to do a four eleven, but everyone else has got
34:45
Speaker 2: their heads down. So me and mix that I rode with,
34:47
Speaker 2: we just went bang, well, if they can do a
34:48
Speaker 2: four twelve week and it's just that self belief, right,
34:50
Speaker 2: so we're just like we're to do a four eleven.
34:52
Speaker 2: We put a gear on which no one had ever
34:54
Speaker 2: was a massive year because obviously on the track you've
34:55
Speaker 2: got a fixed gear. No one had ever didden this
34:58
Speaker 2: gear ever in any race any in the world, and
35:00
Speaker 2: we hadn't written it in training. We just got it
35:02
Speaker 2: built because we thought we thought we might be able
35:03
Speaker 2: to ride on it. One day we chuck this gear on.
35:07
Speaker 2: I think it was like a fifty eight teeth gear.
35:09
Speaker 2: It was massive and anyway we write, we kind of
35:12
Speaker 2: hard to get it out of the gate, and then
35:14
Speaker 2: we wound the thing up and then by the end
35:15
Speaker 2: we broke the world record. But it was it was
35:18
Speaker 2: that thing of you know, I'm just doing it for
35:20
Speaker 2: my family. Really, that's what got me through the last minute.
35:23
Speaker 1: That's amazing, bro. There would have been a slow start
35:27
Speaker 1: without fifty eight to one thing.
35:29
Speaker 3: And because that, yeah, we.
35:31
Speaker 2: Came out of the game and we actually rolled down
35:32
Speaker 2: the board, so we rolled almost roll off because just
35:35
Speaker 2: trying to get the things started. But then once we
35:36
Speaker 2: got through the first three or four pedal strikes, it
35:38
Speaker 2: was we got on top of it.
35:41
Speaker 1: Now before we wind up, tell me about freedomving. That
35:44
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like a good idea. I mean, I'm no expert,
35:46
Speaker 1: but that does seem like a great idea, and that's.
35:51
Speaker 2: Probably a good thing. Like one of the things I
35:54
Speaker 2: built a ond my my extreme sports career is managing
36:00
Speaker 2: real risk and perceived risks. So everyone's got this perceived
36:02
Speaker 2: risk around big wave surfing and free diving. There's a
36:06
Speaker 2: lot of people have died doing free diving, but when
36:08
Speaker 2: you look at the risk they do, they'll buy themselves
36:10
Speaker 2: or they're fully being a little bit reckless in competition.
36:13
Speaker 2: Only one person's ever died from in free diving competition.
36:16
Speaker 2: So I'll be managing it the way I do anything
36:18
Speaker 2: else and being very you know, I'll be sending it
36:21
Speaker 2: as hard as I can, but I'll also be doing
36:22
Speaker 2: it in the most controlled way possible and managing risks.
36:26
Speaker 2: But look, I trained to for Nazuree. I trained myself
36:29
Speaker 2: to hold my breath for nearly six minutes. So if
36:31
Speaker 2: I can build on that a little bit, because that
36:34
Speaker 2: was obviously that was an elevated heart rate for big
36:37
Speaker 2: wave surfing, whereas free diving, I'll be less heart rate.
36:40
Speaker 2: So if I can push that, then I'll be older. Yeah,
36:43
Speaker 2: I'd say I'll be able to set a fairly significant
36:45
Speaker 2: record for the power paraphletic community.
36:48
Speaker 1: It's a very unique physiological requirement doing that, isn't it,
36:52
Speaker 1: Because it's kind of and your body the whole time,
36:55
Speaker 1: your body is like, what are you doing?
36:56
Speaker 3: This is stupid? Stop, you know, because.
37:01
Speaker 2: It'll come back to psychology though. I've just got to
37:03
Speaker 2: stay home and trust my trust that my body is
37:05
Speaker 2: doing what it's trained to do.
37:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's amazing.
37:10
Speaker 1: Hey, mate, if people want to find you or follow you,
37:13
Speaker 1: I know you're a conference speaker, you inspire and educate
37:16
Speaker 1: people around the all around the country and beyond. How
37:20
Speaker 1: do people connect with you and even book you.
37:24
Speaker 2: Anywhere? So you find me on social channels, But the
37:28
Speaker 2: easiest way it's just at my website Mattformston dot com,
37:30
Speaker 2: which is f O R M st O N And yeah,
37:35
Speaker 2: reach out and would love to come and inspire your
37:38
Speaker 2: team or do whatever we can.
37:41
Speaker 3: Awesome, And the movie comes out in all good cinemas
37:44
Speaker 3: and shit ones on August thirteenth, fifteenth.
37:49
Speaker 2: Correct, go on, yeah, August fifteenth. We've got all We've
37:53
Speaker 2: got Hoots Village and whatever the other one is that
37:58
Speaker 2: it's in all cinemas fifteenth of August.
38:02
Speaker 3: We'll go Palace.
38:02
Speaker 1: Who knows the other one? Yeah, exactly. We'll say goodbye
38:06
Speaker 1: offair in a minute. But Maddie, really nice to meet you.
38:09
Speaker 1: You're inspirational. You know that that's not a revelation. But
38:13
Speaker 1: thanks for chatting with me on the new project.
38:15
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me.
38:17
Speaker 3: Thanks Man