Cape Town surfer releases surfing doccie

MATT Bromley, a globally respected and revered big-wave surfer, will release his surf movie Over The Edge today.

The film, a 54-minute documentary, tells how Bromley became one of the best and most passionate big-wave surfers in the world.

He has been chasing big waves for many years, travelling between Hawaii, California, Indonesia, South Africa and Ireland. For him, it is all about finding the biggest waves and pushing himself to catch and ride the behemoths. Much of the movie focuses on Jaws, the big-wave spot on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

“Jaws is the pinnacle of big-wave surfing, and it has also been the pinnacle of my big-wave career,” Bromley said. “It (movie) also includes the session I had at maxing Nias.” Bromley was at Sorake Beach on Nias Island in Indonesia when some of the biggest waves ever seen there exploded over the famous horseshoe-shaped reef.

The movie covers the drama of travelling through a Covid-ravaged world and Bromley’s wife having a baby, while he was in pursuit of that one “bomb” wave at Jaws.

The unassuming Bromley is quick to point out that he is not a surfer full of bravado but an analytical thinker. He plans his big-wave sessions carefully, undertaking complex physical training for them.

“The more physically prepared you are, the more confident you are,” he said. He laughed at the clichéd depiction of big-wave surfers as reckless cowboys, and said he adopted a methodical approach to chasing big waves, both in and out of the water.

“When I see a swell building on the charts, I try to break down and analyse every single element of the swell. Are the waves going to be increasing or decreasing on the day? What are the dangers at the spot I’ve got my sights on? What are my line-ups going to be?

“I try to visualise the exact conditions that there are likely to be on the day and prepare accordingly.”

The movie will be available on this link today: https://geni.us/ OverTheEdge