[MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING]
It's so swollen and so bruised.
MATT:
or to walk away with any titles or trophies.
I've come here to learn from some best waterman on the planet.
And hopefully earn their respect.
[MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING]
From as early as I can remember, I've been around water and the ocean.
As a kid, there was never a weekend
where I wasn't competing at Surf Life Saving
or being near the water in some way or another.
I've won.
I've lost.
I've experienced everything competitively
in the sport that I love.
I've spent my life training and competing as a professional athlete,
but I now want to know how I stack up
against some of the best watermen on the planet, the Polynesians.
For me, waterman is just someone that has a good connection with the ocean,
respectful, and is aware of where his place is.
For me, nature will always be the main thing and realize that ocean,
and the wind, and the mountains are something bigger than you.
MATAHI:
Somebody that enjoys what he does in the ocean.
The people of Polynesia,
as we call it in the Polynesian Triangle,
we got the best of the best here.
And being part of the best,
is that even our genes are adapted to these kind of conditions.
JOHAN:
You say, "Hey, blood is like, you know, part salt, part water."
When you think about how our ancestors migrated here,
so, just imagine an area one-fourth of the planet,
we have Hawaii in the north, Easter Island, Rapa Nui in the east,
and Aotearoa, New Zealand in the southwest,
and Tahiti smack-dab in the middle.
To be able to find all these islands, you need the best,
you need the strongest.
In Tahitian culture we're not above nature,
we're actually part of it.
Our ocean is the provider and so we need to embrace it
but respect it so that it continues to provide.
Like our reefs, like our valleys, you know, rivers and streams
and the mountains, all of that is important.
It's part of who we are.
MATT:
came into the high-performance gym here to do a little bit of testing,
a little bit of mobility work with Tyler.
It's just really interesting to sort of see where your body is at.
It's a good collection of information,
gives you a bit of a stomping ground to see where your baseline is at.
Just sort of looking at low-impact exercises for you,
but also things that could activate you,
and put you in a good state before getting onto an airplane
and sitting for however many hours it is to Tahiti.
MATT:
and I'll be competing in the Waterman Tahiti Tour event at Teahupo'o.
I'm not entirely sure what that entails as yet.
Every time I've been over and competed here at this event,
they seem to just throw a spanner in the works
and just try and keep you guessing.
Yeah, so those guys are gonna really put me to it,
and I'm excited about the challenge.
I've always been really fascinated and had a big respect about Tahiti
and the waterman and the way they go about this lifestyle,
the way they have that appreciation for the ocean.
For me, it's been a sport, it's been my job and a career.
I'd love to look at the ocean, not so much as a job or as a career,
but look at it more as a lifestyle,
and something that does bring me happiness.
That was my desire to come over here,
and I guess come over here as a sponge with an open mind
and see how much I can absorb and learn from them.
MATAHI:
it's a really powerful wave, but I don't know how to explain it.
You kinda like, have to make love with her, and be nice gently,
but you got to be committed too.
Like, I don't know, it's something I never felt somewhere else.
When you grow up around that wave,
you get used to it so it becomes your playground up there.
MATT:
As a young kid, you grew up with the posters of Teahupo'o
on your walls in your room.
It's one of the most beautiful, yet scary waves at the same time,
there's not much margin for error.
[WATER BURBLING]
The wave out there is like nothing I've seen or experienced before.
It really is so unforgiving, and this time I learned the hard way.
No good.
I just went for a little bit of a paddle, went wide,
paddled out through the channel,
and just sitting there watching waves come through consistently,
and a big, wide west rogue bomb came through,
and I scratched to get under the first one, just came through,
and then the second wave of the set just completely cleaned me up
and yeah, this is a bit of a speed bump in the week for sure,
I'm supposed to be racing on the board this weekend
at the Waterman Tahiti Tour event,
so, I might have to reach out to a few friends,
and see if we can find ourselves another prone paddleboard
before the weekend.
Hi, Pete, how are you?
PETER:
Yeah, we've hit a small speed bump.
I felt the full force of Teahupo'o.
I got caught inside on a wide bomb set,
and I've snapped the board, snapped the prone board.
PETER:
What are we gonna do? We need to get a hold of one.
Yeah, if there's any chance we can find another board
somewhere on the island, that would be amazing.
PETER:
Amazing, thank you so much.
-PETER:
MATT:
to track down some gear over here in Tahiti,
but having Matahi and Manawa help us out the way that they have
has been super helpful.
When I came to see him this morning, I saw the broken board
and he was telling me about him getting caught the by the west bowl,
so that was really funny.
MATAHI:
and that was good fun to share the lineup with him,
just me and him,
and Raimana came down too to help us catch waves.
He did really good,
because he was sitting in the west bowl and then going for it.
MATT:
but with the same appreciation of the ocean,
and it was really cool to have Matahi take me out into his world,
into his break, and show me how it's done.
And just to sort of sit back and watch him was unreal.
At night, to be able to go to sleep and hear the ocean still churning,
still doing its thing, when you wake up in the morning,
the fishermen are out there catching fish for the day,
and everyone is up and at it, using the ocean as their playground.
Going over there and not knowing what to expect, who you'll be racing,
what the distances are, what the disciplines are,
it's all just a mental hurdle for you to sort of test your resilience
and test, you know, how strong you can be.
Everyday you're kind of waking up
and it's just completely out of your comfort zone.
Sometimes you got to get out of your comfort zone to make steps forward.
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
Bruno is a really, really solid waterman.
He's just such a fierce competitor and he's got such,
sort of like that dog-instinct attitude when he races,
he doesn't give up.
You know he's just gonna push you right to the end,
he'll give it everything he's got.
Race one of the competition, and it's starting off with a SUP paddling,
something that I'm not very comfortable with,
and it's certainly not my strong point.
You're nervous as hell.
[GUN POPS]
MAN: Come on, Matt. Go, go, go, go, go.
MATT:
So, even though I'm comfortable on a prone board,
it almost comes down to just like a slug-fest,
it's like a game of survival almost, who's gonna break first.
[CROWD CHEERING]
MATT:
get to win in the combo event was great,
but looking forward to day two, knowing that SUP is my Achilles heel,
that's my weak leg, has me nervous going into the next day,
knowing the endurance SUP event's coming,
and I'm not sure how I'll fare in that.
-See you tomorrow, Bruno. -BRUNO: See you tomorrow?
Yes, tomorrow, early.
BRUNO: Okay.
I don't know where, I must have stepped on a rock
just like in the softest part of my foot.
It's so swollen and so bruised.
When I ran that transition I was so scared,
I was gonna like, step on,
like, even touch it would have just crippled me.
Day one done, almost injury free, no snapped boards,
injured the bottom of my foot.
I'll sleep well tonight.
[CRICKETS CHIRPING]
So next right, and then go after that…
Down in, outside, come here.
Okay. And then… so that buoy and then in here?
Yeah, that buoy and come back under the 425 tent.
Well today, first, is the final of the fifth round,
so there is a lot of competition in between the Prone category
and the SUP, all fighting, so, very interesting,
especially when we have Matt,
and then we have Bruno Tauhiro that came back also,
who won the Waterman four times,
so, it makes the ranking very interesting.
STEFAN:
it's being able to do everything in the water,
just connect with the ocean the best that you can.
MATT:
I was just instantly terrified, it was massive.
I knew that the SUP was definitely going to be a struggle for me,
it was gonna be hard.
[GUN POPS]
Rounding that first buoy on the board already,
and feeling that head-wind blowing straight in your face
and onto your chest,
I knew it was gonna be such a long 3 kilometers,
punching straight into that.
To then turn around and come back
was just gonna be such a struggle for me.
[LIGHT MUSIC PLAYING]
After the day before's racing, I stepped on a rock
when I was running a transition,
and seemed to have bruised the arch of my foot quite bad.
And that was playing on me already and just causing havoc.
I was trying to block the pain,
the pain from my shoulders, the pain from my back,
that wind was just on top of everything making it such a struggle.
Once that gun went in the Prone Race,
I just took off just as quick as I could,
and tried to open up a bit of a lead.
It's very hard, on the prone paddleboards when you are paddling,
to break away from somebody later in the race,
especially by sitting tight on your tail.
Once I knew that they had missed that wash
and they were maybe 20 meters behind that,
that's when I had to sort of like,
settle down and try to get myself in a bit of a rhythm.
[LIGHT MUSIC PLAYING]
For me to be looking over my shoulder and looking back at them,
that was a sign to me that I knew my body was hurting, I was exhausted.
The locals' knowledge and the way they read the conditions out there,
they were definitely close enough to catch me.
You need to read the surf and the swells around you,
watch what the wind's doing, and try to pick up those runs and glides.
I watched those guys take a wider line,
a little bit further out to sea,
and it was definitely paying off for them.
And I need to conserve energy,
but at the same time, I've got to keep hammering
because they're just so close to me now.
I think, at the end of the event,
I came away with everything I could have asked for.
I went in there and I executed my strategies for my strength races,
the combo and the prone paddleboard,
and I came away with the win in that, and then the SUP.
I knew for me it was always gonna be, perhaps,
an experience, was going to be going over there,
and it was just, for me it was a personal battle to go out there
and test myself against those guys,
and see just how talented they are, how skillful they are.
He understands what it is to sacrifice,
what it is to be committed.
JOHAN:
MATT:
and one very, very noticeable weakness, which in the SUP event.
I guess you come away humbled with that, you know.
[LIGHT MUSIC PLAYING]