Mat Pearch is a UK based sailor but tends to concentrate on non-UK events! He’s a regular on the PWA wave tour and is now doing rather well on the slalom tour following intensive winter training on Maui. He’s also a good sport so when Boardseeker filmed his near moment of glory, we just had to get his comments on it!

"It seemed to go well until I encountered some fierce chop on top of some swell which caught me off guard"

Mat: It was the losers final; I had a good start and spent the whole race alongside Bjorn for first. I felt I had good speed, so I aimed to exit the second to last gybe as fast as possible to get the run on him before the last gybe. This seemed to go as planned until I encountered some fierce chop on top of some swell which caught me off guard. I bounced from one swell to another until one threw me up in the air and into the sail, and that was that!

Mat now lies 14th overall at the PWA Pozo event after nine races.