Mark Mathews

Riding the world’s biggest waves takes a great deal of courage and resilience. But the courage and resilience it takes to surf big waves is not reserved for a limited number of action sports athletes and adrenaline junkies. It’s available for anyone.

There are people from all walks of life right now in this very moment, displaying more courage than what it takes to surf big waves. How are they doing it? There is a method, a set of principles that sit at the core of all acts of courage. When applied, these principles allow us to live a life without the controlling limitations of fear, a life on our own terms.

As a highly sought after international speaker, Mathews’ surfer chill vibe and magnetic charisma has graced the stages of leading companies world wide. From Google, Sony, Intel to MasterCard, he instantly captures audiences with his epic tales and spectacular surf footage.

Through his career as a professional ‘Big Wave’ surfer and Red Bull Athlete, he has become obsessed with the relationship between personal growth, high performance and fulfilment.

During his Life Beyond Fear keynote, Mark takes the audience through deconstructed, fine-tuned, and personalised emotion and resilience techniques that help successfully strengthen ones mindset and sustain long term performance.

Explore the scientific benefits of vision, meaning, gratitude & the counter intuitive techniques that disrupt negative mental perceptions & increase innovation, drive & performance.

There are two main components to adapting to change & the stress that comes with it: “Embrace And Upgrade” and “Rest And Recover.” Through these two components we can learn how to avoid the “crash and burn” cycle by converting fear-based habits to positive lifestyle patterns.

In the ocean, Mark must always assume that conditions can — and will — unexpectedly change, violently and quickly. Mark and his team must stay hypersensitive to change, continually reassessing conditions, refocusing goals, and updating strategies.

With this agility, Mark and his team can overcome all challenges and succeed in surfing the world’s biggest waves.

Discover how a 10 year old boy terrified of the ocean would go on to become one of the worlds best Big Wave Surfers.

A story so inspiring that is was developed into the 2x AFI award winning movie Fighting Fear, narrated by Hollywood superstar Joel Edgerton.

Full of spectacular real life footage and stories of how Mark has conquered the worlds biggest waves, suffered near death wipe outs and managed to win multiple big wave awards.

This High Impact Presentation Will Help People:

• Avoid the “crash and burn” cycle by converting fear-­based habits to positive lifestyle patterns
• Access the mental rewire secrets used by elite athletes: simple and actionable tools that promote nervous system health
• Discover counter intuitive techniques to disrupt negative mental perceptions to naturally increase innovation and drive

In order to successfully deliver ROI to his sponsors and stay alive at the same time. It is imperative for Mark to surround himself with and be able to lead a phenomenally talented group of individuals. Leveraging they’re skills and talent and intern elevating his own performance and safety.

Through years of leading teams in highly volatile and stressful environments, Mark has come up with a formula to help select and manage the individuals he works with, and also assess his own performance. The Eagle Formula.

In this presentation watch as Mark and his team chase a monster swell to remote Western Australia in an attempt to pull of one of the most Audacious surf shoots in history.

This Presentation Will take a look at:

• Integrating emotional intelligence and confidence-­based strategies to build resilient and engaged teams
• What are the most important characteristics individuals need to be good team members
• Leading others to overcome risk, change and uncertainty in volatile environments
• Learning how to easily adapt, react, and capture opportunities in high-­risk situations

Mergers, buy-­outs, downsizing: These are just a few of the ways in which companies can transform literally overnight. While these moves often help a company remain competitive, they also result in profound changes to organisational structure or other disruptions to the status quo.

Change can trigger our most basic survival instincts, and even when physical survival is not an issue, it can feel as if it is whenever things change. Our known existence, whether we liked it or not, is replaced by an unknown one, and we become fearful and disoriented.

Helping your employees deal with the Stress and anxiety that comes along with such changes is crucial.

Mark knows all too well the crippling effects of stress and anxiety. While in Tasmania, fifteen feet in front of a cliff in cold, shark infested waters, Mark hit a reef and instantly blacked out. Terror engulfed every inch of his being. Neck braced and hospital-­ridden, he didn’t know if he could ever surf again. At that moment, Mark made a decision never to allow stress and anxiety to put him in this position again.

Through vision of dramatic real life scenarios, this presentation will explore:

• Techniques to develop Resilience and Courage
• The benefits of a growth mindset
• The importance of commitment in implementing Change

In the ocean Mark assumes that risk is present at all times, from the time he paddles out, sometimes with cliffs in the background and coral reef just a few inches below, to the time he commits to a wave that has immense power ? 3 or 4 stories high and breaking with the power of a of a freight train.

For a professional big wave surfer like Mark, there is a very real risk that every wave he catches could be his last. His career could be over. His income earning power could vanish. And his ability to raise a family could disappear.

Not to mention the sharks! So success for Mark includes his ability to live with these risks and to develop effective strategies to manage risk as a constant companion.

In 2007 Mark learnt the hard way what happens when you underestimate the involved risk and don’t prepare sufficiently.

This High Impact Presentation Will Help People:

• Leading others to overcome risk, change and uncertainty in volatile environments
• Learning how to easily adapt, react, and capture opportunities in high-risk situations
• Discover counter intuitive techniques to disrupt negative mental perceptions to naturally increase innovation and drive and focus
• Avoid the “crash and burn” cycle by converting fear-­based habits to positive lifestyle patterns