Meet the Team

I grew up playing hockey, soccer, baseball and basically running around the neighbourhood with my friends for hours on end. After finishing college for Marketing, I travelled to Australia where I was craving to see what surfing was about. I rented a board on the famous Bondi Beach and parked myself in front of a lifeguard. I was hooked but the rest definitely isn't history. Surfing in the Northern Beaches of Sydney with an amazing international crew of friends added so much value to my life. Surfing was it for me now. Nothing else mattered. It provided much more than the rest could ever do.
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Through connections I had made in Australia, I was gifted the opportunity to help coach in a surf camp in Northern Spain for two summers. This is where I found my true vocation. Surfing itself gives so much satisfaction and teaching people how to surf takes that a step further. In Spain, I deepened my knowledge of surfing fundamentals, ocean safety, wave reading, and easily passed this new found love onto guests in the surf camp. I also learned to speak Spanish and German: first to make travelling that much more of an adventure and second to relate to the many international guests surfing with me. Since Spain, I have surfed in 9 countries spanning 4 continents and the list keeps growing. I have surfed some of the longest waves in the world and some of the coldest too. I have helped teach hundreds of amazing people how to surf and keep in touch with many of them.

My connection with the ocean and surfing took a serious turn during that first summer in Spain in 2010. It was a Sunday and new guests had arrived. I was helping them get into wetsuits and give out boards when I got the call that my brother was sick. More than just sick, he was in a hospital at the base of Mount Everest in Nepal, clinging to life. Thousands of kilometers from my brother and my family there wasn't much I could do: so alone I went to the ocean. The ocean didn't give me answers that day, it was just there. It was a place for me to sort my thoughts and feel for my brother. Sadly I received a phone call hours later that we had lost him. My brother's death, as heavy as it was, has imprinted on my soul how important life is and how we must do what we love. For me, this means sharing my love of waves and my gift as a personable and knowledgeable surf coach to as many people as I can, for as long as I can.

Teaching people to surf in Spain naturally lead to getting certified as an instructor. In late 2016, I became certified by the International Surfing Association (ISA) as a Level 1 Surf Coach in Jaco, Costa Rica. This achievement is one of the biggest accomplishments of my life and I have it on my wall at home as a reminder everyday.

Since my time in Spain, I have been frothing on the waves in my own country and love sending it on epic surf trips to new lands. So far I have lead surf trips to Nicaragua, Peru and Costa Rica.

The North Atlantic Surfing Academy is a comprehensive approach to surf coaching set to serve the local community of surfers looking to progress their skills.


- Matty