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101 Matt Grainger - Want to Surf Stronger and Longer? Discover the Fitness Secrets With Surf Mastery Podcast Download Ever wondered what it takes to paddle back to the boat after cracking your skull open on a reef—and then surf again the next day?In this powerful and raw episode, Matt Grainger recounts the most serious injury of his surfing life and breaks down the mindset, fitness, and breathwork tools that helped him survive, recover, and return to surfing. Whether you’re battling niggling injuries or just want to surf smarter as you age, this episode is packed with life-saving tips and surf longevity gold.Hear Matt's gnarly reef injury story and the step-by-step actions that kept him from infection or worseLearn the mobility and strength training practices that keep him charging Indo barrels at 55Discover overlooked health tips for surfers—from reef cut recovery to sleep and sunlight exposureHit play now to learn how to surf longer, recover faster, and avoid the mistakes that can sideline your progress and health.For more insights and tips from Matt Grainger:Follow Matt Grainger: Instagram - mattgraingersurf & Linkedin - Matt GraingeFollow Michael John Frampton: Instagram - @surfmastery & Website: https://surfmastery.com/Key PointsReef Collision & Injury: Matt recounts a terrifying reef impact at low tide—being catapulted headfirst, fracturing his skull, and stitching out coral fragments before the session ended.First-Aid & Infection Prevention: Detailed reef-cut care tips: scrub with a clean toothbrush, use peroxide/iodine/alcohol wipes, rinse with bottled water, apply powder (EVP), and wear protective footwear.Helmets & Safety Gear: After the incident, Matt adopts a soft-shell surf helmet for heavy, shallow-reef breaks to prevent re-opening cuts and concussion.Surf Fitness & Mobility: At 55, Matt surfs daily and credits a gym regimen of mobility drills, strength training (Olympic rings, squats), breath training (4-sec inhale/6-sec exhale), and sprinting for injury reduction and performance.Age & Mindset: Emphasizes the power of positive self-talk around aging, citing Bruce Lee’s “spelling spells” concept, and shares his belief in staying mentally youthful through passion for surfing.Mind-Body Connection: Michael and Matt discuss placebo-style health benefits from circadian alignment (morning sun exposure), grounding (barefoot in sand/ocean), and limiting blue-light before bed.Surfing as a Puzzle: Every wave presents a unique challenge—from takeoff to turn execution—keeping surfing engaging and motivating across conditions.Wave-Pool Coaching Masterclass: Matt describes running Indo clinics at the Sydney wave pool: expert-mode barrel clinics, AI video analysis (FlowState), mobility drills for tube riding, and apnea (breath-hold) training.Take-Home Tips: Consistent cut-care, helmet use in gnarly reef breaks, small “movement snacks” throughout the day, mobility + strength focus, and maintaining a fun, puzzle-solving mindset.OutlinePodcast IntroductionMichael Frampton welcomes listeners to Surf Mastery Podcast.Episode ethos: education + inspiration for better surfing and life.Guest intro: Matt Grainger—mid-50s, lifelong ripper, surf coach, health & fitness advocate, four-time guest.Brief mention of show extras: free PDFs (top tips & exercises), personal coaching, YouTube video version.Matt’s Reef Collision StorySetting: Macca’s wave, two-swell day, paddle contest with friend Sean.The wipeout: foam-ball pump, wave turns, head-first reef impact at low tide.Immediate aftermath: heavy bleeding, coral fragments, self-rescue to pontoon.First-Aid & Infection PreventionCoral extraction with tweezers and toothbrush scrub under peroxide/alcohol.Two-hour stitching process; breath-training to manage stress.Infection cautionary tale: fellow surfer Kat’s flesh-eating microbe and staph from minor foot cuts.Recommended kit: clean spare toothbrush, iodine/alcohol wipes, EVP powder, protective footwear.Helmet Adoption & Safety GearDescription of soft-shell rugby-style surf helmet (like Tommy Carroll’s).Protocol: wear in gnarly, shallow-reef conditions; continued use at G-Land.Benefits: prevents re-opening cuts, reduces concussion risk.Surf Fitness & Mobility RegimenDaily routine: gym at Surfers’ Gym—mobility drills, Olympic rings pull-ups, split squats.Breath training: Resident breathing technique (4-sec inhale, 6-sec exhale).Strength focus: leg-dominant work, rotator-cuff prehab, single-leg balance (eyes closed), pendulum jumps.Nutrition & recovery: two meals/day, bone broth, black coffee + coconut oil, ice baths + sauna.Age, Mindset & MotivationPositive self-talk: avoiding “I’m old” narrative; Bruce Lee quote on words as spells.Harvard placebo study on environment and physiological improvement.Surfing as the ultimate motivator for healthy choices: diet, sleep, training.Mind-Body Connection & Health HacksMorning sun exposure for circadian alignment; limiting blue-light pre-sleep.Grounding via barefoot time in sand/ocean; negative-ion benefits.Infrared and light-health emerging trends; balancing time and resources.Surfing as a PuzzleEvery wave’s variables: drop style, speed generation, foot placement.Board evolution: modern shapes enabling more accessible performance.Interview with son Mason on board tech improvements driving performance.Wave-Pool Coaching MasterclassWeekly clinics at Sydney wave pool: 5’3″ Bobby quads, 20+ waves in an hour.Indo masterclass: video breakdown of tube riding, foot placement drills, mobility patterns.AI FlowState analysis: personalized feedback on technique.Apnea training session in heated pool; reef-cut & first-aid workshop by Dr. Shaz.Closing & Calls-to-ActionMichael’s school-pickup notice, thanks to Matt.Subscribe, rate & review on Spotify/Apple Podcasts; watch on YouTube.Visit surfmastery.com for blog tips, PDFs, and online coaching.Sign-off: “Until next time, keep surfing.”TranscriptionMatt Grainger I have a nice snap in my head that I took off, made the drop, I was on the foam ball and as I was pumping on the foam ball, the wave turned the corner. So I just got catapulted on the foam ball, thrown in and out head first. And as soon as my head landed, the lip hit the back of my neck and just drove me straight into the reef like instantly. It was only like two foot deep, it was low tide and I just, it was just like bang. And I was like oh, oh no. I got a bit on here. I had like 25 stitches here, five stitches here and I just went, I knew the session was over and I just paddled back. Getting myself back. I almost forgot this anyway, so I went back and got on the pontoon and just started pouring bottled water over my head. I'd cracked, I'd actually like fractured my skull but it was actually bits of coral coming out of my head. And then pulling bits of coral out with the tweezers and then got toothbrushed for an hour and just was scrubbing it. What, scrubbing it all with peroxide or iodine or something? Yeah, just with light alcohol. Oh yeah.Michael Frampton Welcome back or welcome to the Surf Mastery Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Frampton. And the ethos of this show is education and inspiration for better surfing and a better surfing life. And Matt Grainger, today’s guest, not only was a huge part of the inspiration for the birth of this show, but he epitomizes that ethos as well. He is in his mid-50s now and he's still out there surfing a ton and stays fit and healthy for surfing and also teaches others to be better surfers and better people through better surfing mindset, health and fitness, etc. Matt is just a pure inspiration in the surfing world and just an absolute frother and a rips. He rips. He's an incredible surfer and stoked to get him back on the show. And like I said, he first appeared back in episode number one. This will be his fourth appearance. He also appeared in episode 30 and episode 55 as well. And without further ado, I shall fade in my conversation, my fourth conversation on this podcast with Matt Grainger from Manly Surf School.Matt Grainger So how are you? Great, mate. Yeah. Just did a trip to Indo, which is nice.Michael Frampton Yeah. The head looks like it's all healed up. The head's good. Look at that. I'm a good healer.Matt Grainger I can tell. Good job. Yeah. It's an improvement. Yeah, she gave me a facelift while she did it.Michael Frampton Oh, sweet.Matt Grainger Is that your worst injury out there? Yeah, definitely. I've never hit my head ever in any reef in Indo or anywhere. I've obviously had bullets in the head. Some good cuts in the eyes, always the right eye. Must be the way I turn my head. Just haven't had time to put the hands up. Funny, you learn the surf way, tell people to put your hands up. Done it successfully a few times, but sometimes it's got through. A lot of fins in the back of the head. But yeah, never hitting the head on the bottom of the reef. I had the reef crack under my head with nailing. As I got smashed, just instant, like, just heard this, and I just heard the reef just snap in my head, just heard this crack. And I was like, oh. Like, you know when you say stuff, oh, that's not good. And then I popped up. I popped up, then another wave hit that, and there was bursts of blood vessel in the top of my head. So there was heaps of blood. So I couldn't see out of my left eye. And I felt that I hit my nose as well. I said to one of the Indo guys, Wayway, who is one of the managers of Macca's Resort, I said, have I still got my left eye and my nose? And he goes, yep. And I said, oh, we're good to go then.Michael Frampton How did it happen? Was it just a freak random thing, or was it a lapse in concentration, or what?Matt Grainger Yeah, it was a bit of the ego took over. Every day was the best day ever. We had the first swell in June. And this one day, oh, just got bigger and bigger, and it had a lot of south in it. There were two swells. It was like a south swell and a bit of southwest as well. So you could get a chip in. You could chip in from behind on the tower, and you could backdoor where you'd usually take off, so you'd get more barrel time. And I was riding this Magic 6'0 CI Pro 1 that I've had for about a year. Felt unreal under the feet. I'd been riding it all day straight. And then this guy, Sean, came out from South Africa. He rocked up on a boat. Him and I started paddling up the reef and just trading wave after wave and making them. So we’re just making these unbelievable tubes, and no one came up there because, you know, it was pretty gnarly. So if you fell, it was like two foot deep, and it was like an eight foot swell. So when Macca's, probably eight to ten, you probably saw footage of Nathan Florence. I don't know if you saw some of the footage of him in HTs. It was like ten to twelve foot HTs that day, whereas Macca's doesn't get bigger. It just gets thicker. So it's probably six to eight foot, but really thick, like a Chopes kind of wave. You get this drop. You can make this really nice drop and then come in with speed. And just if you made it, you're fine. But if you didn't make it, that's what happened. So after five hours, I actually wasn't even tired. It was after like five hours, I was just getting cocky, and I probably should have gone in. It was more like one more, one more. And Sean and I were trying to outdo each other, and he actually snapped his board on his last wave, and I snapped my head. But I took off, made the drop, was on the foam ball. As I was pumping on the foam ball, the wave turned a corner, so kind of that southwest angle of the wave. So it turned a massive corner. So I just got catapulted on the foam ball, and I got thrown in out head first. And as soon as my head landed, the lip hit the back of my neck and just drove me straight into the reef like instantly. It was only like two foot deep. It was low tide, and I just, it was just like bang. I was like, oh, oh, no. I got a bit on here. And then I went into warrior mode. I went into warrior mode, you know, where I'd said, ask the Wayway if my eyes were okay. I actually got a cut there as well, so I got a cut. I got cuts either side of the nose. Down here on the bottom of the nose as well, on this eye, and obviously here, I had like 25 stitches here, five stitches here, and I just went, oh, I knew the session was over, and I just paddled back. Everyone was like, oh, get a boat. Everyone's screaming, get a boat, get a boat, Matt's hurt. I'm like, I'm good, I'm good. Get myself back on my own, you know. One guy goes, yeah, good on ya. This guy, Hans from America, he goes, good on ya, tough guy. I'm like, nah, I've got this, I've got this. Anyway, so I went back and got on the pontoon and just started pouring bottled water over my head, and then I got the boat back to Macca's and then looked for showers, and she was already stitching up my brother. He had a little cut on his back. And then someone said, oh, Matt's looking for you, he cut his head, and she thought, if he's asking for something, he's in a bad way. So then she saw my head, and she thought I'd actually fractured my skull, but it was actually bits of coral coming out of my head. Far out. So she pulled that, pulled the bits of coral out. She got some local, which was good, and just put it in the cuts, and then pulling bits of coral out with tweezers and then got a toothbrush for an hour and just was scrubbing it. That was the gnarly part.Michael Frampton Scrubbing it all with peroxide or iodine or something?Matt Grainger Yeah, just with light alcohol. Just so you don't kill the flesh too much. Not too gnarly, but just getting it all out, and I reckon that saved me for sure. Then obviously it took about two hours to stitch up, which was gnarly. And I was just doing a lot of breath training, like coaching, wrapping it, training, and I saw resident breathing, which was like a four-second inhale, six-second exhale. I was just going into that, and that helped big time. That was like a three-hour ordeal, which felt like a long time, but it wasn't as long as I thought. And then she put a face mask over it, which I couldn't see. And then, yeah, the rest is history. And then I surfed the next day.Michael Frampton Our kid did not. Yeah, I know.Matt Grainger He taped it up. I just said, I'll get one wave. I'll get one wave, and I did some tests, like I was jumping on one leg, see if I had concussion. And then, oh, no, not well in the head anyway. And then I wore a helmet, of course. And then I didn't surf for, after that day, I didn't surf for three and a half days. And then after that, I was good to go. I was having four tablets of antibiotics every day, washing it with fresh water. She was breaking up antibiotics and putting it inside the cut as well. Yeah. And she left a little bit of one of the gnarly cuts in it too tight, so bits of coral would still come out if it did. Just a little bit's popping out. Far out. So, yeah, so I'm wearing a helmet from now on when it's gnarly like that. So I went to G-Land after that. We had another swell at Macca's and surfed Greenbush. So I had one of those soft-shell helmets that Tommy Carroll wears. Yeah. By DMC. It's like a rugby helmet. Yeah, yeah. But they're nice and light. Yeah, so I wore that. That felt good. And then I wore it in G-Land. Every surf, even, because I didn't want to get hit and break the cuts open anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got the stitches out after six days. Really, it healed well. Yeah. Dope. Wow. But from now on, if it's gnarly and low tide and heavy, I'll be wearing a helmet.Michael Frampton Yeah, fair enough.Matt Grainger But I like getting a co…
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