Matt McGillivray made a grand entrance at the Corona Cero Open J-Bay over the weekend. It’s no secret the South African gets his kicks from more than just surfing, catching recognition for his BASE jumping and wingsuit flying antics when he’s not surfing heats. This weekend, though, McGillivray combined the two by jumping out of a plane and dropping right onto the beach in time for his Elimination Round heat against Italo Ferreira.
The WSL opted to make 007 comparisons with the stunt, but they missed a major layup with that analysis. James Bond may have always had some random daredevil’s craft mastered and handy for any challenge thrown at him, but I imagine even Bond would have been humbled if Hollywood ever put him on a surfboard — riding waves has a way of making cool people not look so cool. This wasn’t 007, this was the Ex-Presidents. McGillivray is more Bodhi than Bond.
“When I was 16, I started doing my skydiving license with my older brothers,” he said back in 2020. “I realized skydiving was a lot scarier than I thought, and that it was one of the best feelings in the world. In 2018, after building up enough experience skydiving, my brother, Jonathan, and I did a trip over to Twin Falls, Idaho, to do a BASE Jumping course at the only legal BASE jumping bridge in the USA.”
And last year, McGillivray told The Inertia “I know that there’s a lot at stake if something were to happen. I mean, with wingsuiting, if something goes bad, then it goes really bad. So it’s not even going to matter. But it’s definitely in my mind that there’s a life at stake. I try to be extra careful when I’m doing these dangerous activities because surfing is my priority and I have a long way to go in my career. I don’t want to waste any of that potential.”
The stunt didn’t translate to a big heat score. McGillivray fell to Ferreira in their heat, but it seemed like a memorable career moment for Matty nonetheless.
