Bromley advises you walk progressively scarier stepping stones until you’re at the place you want to be. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Matt Bromley spends a lot of his life being scared. He does it because he loves surfing waves that scare him, but fear management is something all big wave surfers need to learn.
Bromley, of course, rides waves that could kill him. One doesn’t get to be one of the best big wave riders in the world by not wiping out, though, and the bigger the wave, the bigger the wipeout. He’s had his fair share of them at places like Pipeline, Nias, and Maverick’s, and over the years he’s developed a sort of routine to keep the fear in check.
“For me, I think my greatest fear was getting caught inside on a multiple wave, massive set,” he says. “I was absolutely terrified of that — and I still am, to be honest — but I’ve been working my way to edge fear out of the equation.”
Bromley doesn’t exactly face the worst possible scenario of his fear all at once. Instead, he puts himself in situations that are similar to that worst possible scenario. Bit by bit, he works his way up so that if, or when, he finds himself facing a massive set of waves as he’s bobbing around on the inside, he knows what he’s in for and he knows he’s prepared for it. It’s about finding those stepping stones that lead you to the place you want to be, even if that place seems impossibly scary.
“It’s not about jumping from two-foot waves into 10-foot waves straight away,” he explains. “Nobody can do that, and I didn’t do that either.”
