Transmission Behind The News - Matty McArthur

In: Transmission by doclach 0 Comments Mon 23rd May '11
Tags: BTN , Matty McArthur , Indigenous
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Recently a mate in S.A. contacted me saying his wife wanted to interview an indigenous bodyboarder. A quick call to Matty McArthur, a few hook up emails and here we are. Matty emailed today to say it was wrapped and will be on TV tomorrow. A lot goes on quietly in the background of bodyboarding that you never hear about. Some of these things need to be shouted about, and this is one of them. I'll hand you over to Matty McArthur's words:

The segment on myself and bodyboarding on the ABC's show Behind The News is directed at our youth and what it takes to become a professional body boarder and to ride some of the types of waves i ride! It is also showcasing some of my work as a professional body boarder i am conducting with our indigenous youth of Australia. [Ed. see video below]

Basically the idea of the surf school is to give our indigenous youth a chance to get in the ocean and enjoy everything that comes with our great sport Body Boarding! Some of these kids come from troubled backgrounds and i want to be there to be a positive role model for each one of these kids and tell them that they have what it takes to be great at which ever sport they chose to pursue. Because we are all born to be great and some of the kids feel as thou because there life is tough and they come up against discrimination because of the colour of their skin that they sometimes give up on their dreams. My philosophy to the kids is like that of the rose that grew through concrete you know its like no matter how hard those concrete barriers in life are they can be strong enough to crack that concrete and follow their dreams and blossom just like that rose.

Conducting these surf schools with these kids is one of the most incredible things i have ever done to see how passionate and strong hearted these kids are inspired me more than anything! Just that raw natural talent and the compassionate hearts of these kids was incredible and to have them looking up to me as a professional indigenous body boarder was insane, i really felt deep down that i have an amazing connection with these kids because i am indigenous and i come from where they come from you know. I feel as though constantly working with our youth in this way and to represent our aboriginal youth we can make a difference not just myself but body boarding as a sport can make a difference!

Matt adds:
All photos by Jeremy Cresswell Kane Overall and Jon Tompson
plus the abc clip will be up and able to view online at www.abc.net.au/btn also editing our own version of the clip for the internet which will be uncensored and talking about some of our youths problems.
It will also be replayed next Monday at 5:55pm on ABC 1.

Postscript:

This is the video of the story. Job well done all 'round. How stoked do the kids look!!

Because of the big-wave riding included, a lot of people were amazed and commented to Kirsty (the fab reporter) that they didn't realise bodyboarding was at that level. Nice balance. We need more of this, but what a great start!

 

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