Big wave surfer Mark Mathews

Mathews was told he might not surf again after an excruciating wipeout in 2016. But now he is planning a comeback

Mark Mathews had to shut the blinds for six months. He couldn’t bear to look outside.

One of Australia’s best big wave surfers, he had suffered an excruciating wipeout on the New South Wales south coast in late 2016, landing feet-first on a shallow reef.

The impact fractured his right shin, snapped his anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, and tore an artery and nerve.

He had to be airlifted to Canberra hospital, where doctors told him he might not surf again.

“I couldn’t even look at it,” he says of the ocean, recalling what it was like being confined to his beachside couch for the next six months. “But now I wake up every day and check the swell forecast again. I’m only looking for one-foot waves, but still. My life’s gone back to revolving around weather forecasts, which is such an exciting way to live.”

In late December Mathews paddled out at Maroubra, his home break in Sydney, and caught a few waves on a longboard, standing up with help from a foot brace.

He was elated. It had been 14 months since his accident, which led to multiple surgeries and a year of rehab, and it exceeded his expectations of his recovery schedule.

“I wasn’t supposed to be doing that for another few months but it felt really good,” he says. “I feel like I’m going to get back way quicker than I thought.”

The significance of the moment wasn’t lost on the surfing community.

Eugene Tan, the renowned Aquabumps photographer, happened to be at Maroubra that morning, and photographed Mathews standing up on a small right-hander.

He posted the photo on Instagram, with the note: “Look who’s back in the water and surfing again, big wave surfing freak @markmathewssurf. After nearly two years out of the water (with back to back injuries) and being told he may never surf again, he’s determined to come back ... Onya Chalk.”

Tan’s photo was liked by 1,420 people, a testament to the support Mathews has from the public.

Mathews is now talking about surfing huge waves again and getting barrelled at spots such as Cape Fear in Botany Bay (a notoriously dangerous wave called “Ours”).

But he says his approach to surfing will be different. This was his second serious injury in as many years, as Tan alluded to, and the recovery has taken its toll.

“I’m going to be more reluctant with the really shallow waves, like Ours, because that’s the type I hurt myself in,” he says. “The fear around that type of wave is going to be way stronger.”

Mark Matthews directly before the wipeout that hospitalised him. Photograph: Leroy Bellet
“I’ll probably focus on the big deep-water wave stuff, like Jaws in Hawaii, or Nazare in Portugal, and maybe a couple of the big wave events.”

Nazare is one of the biggest waves on the planet. It has reportedly been ridden at 100ft.

Mathews’ recovery goals are ambitious. After finally standing up on a wave again, he wants to be back surfing waves of consequence within six months.

“In my head I was hoping to be standing on a board in February, what I’m doing now, just standing up on a long board and cruising,” he says,

Now he is even contemplating the possibility of a wildcard entry in Hawaii in 2018, despite the horrendous long-term damage to his leg.

The accident left his right leg with irreparable nerve damage and meant he couldn’t lift his right foot. He has been able to surf again only because his foot has been surgically fixed at a 90-degree flex and a tendon on the side of the foot used for internal rotation has been moved to the top.

“My ankle at the moment is like standing on a wobble board but it will come back,” he says.

Since Mathews has been well enough to walk he has been delivering motivational talks at events around the world.

His talk is all about conquering fear, about learning to ignore the feelings that make you want to run, to realise that fear is all in your head, and that you have the power to control it.

He says you have to want something more than you fear it.

“That’s the silver lining to being injured,” he says. “It kickstarted me doing that full time, so I’m ready for when I retire down the line. I’ve been flying all over, delivering keynote talks to Google, Mastercard, a bunch of big organisations, like CommBank.

“When I had the accident the doctors were all freaked out like, ‘You’re going to go through mass depression because your body’s going to change, you won’t have the adrenaline that you’re used to getting, so your hormone balance will change’.

“But I feel it’s helped so much with that, because for me public speaking is scarier that surfing. I get as much adrenaline from that.”