THE ART OF BEING UNCOMFORTABLE WITH MATT BROMLEY

It’s a bright Monday morning at Long Beach in Kommetjie, a small coastal village located in Cape Town on the southern tip of South Africa. The water is bustling with a crowd of surfers jockeying for the playful waves breaking over ash-white sand.

- Alan van Gysen

In stark contrast, directly across the bay, lie the towering mountain peaks that overlook Dungeons, one of the most fearsome big wave spots on the planet. On large swells, you can see the spray of gigantic waves smashing up against these brooding cliffs from miles away.

“Dungeons is probably the scariest big wave spot in the world,” says Matt Bromley, pointing across the bay. “You never know what it’s going to do, it’s so unpredictable. You’re halfway out in the middle of the ocean and the area where the waves break is the size of a football field. It’s terrifying. But it’s also capable of delivering the best ride of your life.” 

Standing at six-foot-three, Bromley has long outgrown his childhood nickname of The Pterodactyl, when he was a gangly-limbed teenager surfing the gentle waves in front of us. Today, the 30-year-old South African is built like an Olympic swimmer and has become known for his exploits at big wave locations around the globe, a journey he traces directly back to the ominous wave in the distance.

“When I was young I’d watch guys surfing the big wave spots around Cape Town and I was just in awe. They’d be riding these huge waves, and I’d be sitting there saying to myself, ‘I want to be a part of that one day.’”

Since then, Bromley has earned himself a place amongst the vanguard of modern big wave surfers, making him a fitting subject for Paul Taublieb’s new film Groundswell: The Other side of Fear. Narrated in a gravelly baritone by Josh Brolin, the feature-length documentary looks beyond the spectacular veneer of big wave surfing to uncover what drives these athletes to throw themselves at waves that can, quite literally, kill them in an instant.