Matt Becker got hooked on stand up paddle surfing when he was 14. He is now a professional in the sport.
A little over three years ago, 14-year-old local surfer Matt Becker thought he’d try stand up paddle surfing He immediately took to the sport and is now traveling the world and competing as a professional stand up paddle surfer
Next week (Feb. 19-25), Becker will be in Miraflores, Peru as a member of the United States team entered in the inaugural International Surfing Association World Stand Up Paddle (SUP) and Paddleboard Championships.
“I was blown away that I was selected to represent my country in our sport’s first ever showing at the ISA event in Peru,” Becker said in an email interview with Presidio Sports. “It’s a huge honor, and my hope is I’ll be able to compete to the best of my abilities and we’ll see what happens.”
Becker competes at both distance paddle races and wave riding.
“I got into paddle surfing as soon as I found I had a knack for it,” said Becker from the North Shore in Oahu, Hawaii, where he just finished competing in the Sunset Beach Pro.
“I never thought I’d ever be traveling and competing in various SUP events professionally. I just did it because it was fun to do when the waves were too small to surf my shortboard,” Becker said “As I started to get addicted to paddling, I eventually did a few competitions and did pretty well. One thing led to another, and three years later I was a professional athlete in one of the fastest growing sports in the world.”
He said his best result for racing was a seventh-place finish out of 92 competitors at the 2011 Battle of the Paddle in Hawaii.
In SUP surfing, “Seeing as I very recently started competing in SUP surfing competitions, my best result for that would be a semifinal finish at the SUP World Tour event in Huntington Beach. I took third in the trials event, which then brought me to the main event,” he said.
In other competitions, last September, Becker finished third at the World Paddle Association World Paddle Championships in Hermosa Beach. He competed in the 14-foot board division in in a 6.6-mile SUP race. Earlier in the year, he placed second in the 18-under class at the Battle of the Paddle competition in Dana Point and he took top honors at the first Surftech Surf & Sand Duel-athlon, competed in scary surf conditions in Santa Cruz.
“It was gnarly! We were dodging seals, 5 foot wind bumps… it was great when we were coming in, great downwind runs, but once you turned around it was just 25 miles per hour of nature against you,” Becker said after the race.
Becker said he wasn’t really aware of competitions in the sport when he first started.
“At that time, the sport was so new and there weren’t many SUP surfing competitions except for a few in Hawaii and maybe one or two per year on the West Coast.”
Today, there is a Stand Up World Tour and a WPA National Tour.
Becker, 17, lives with his parents, Mark and Martha Becker, in the Mesa neighborhood. He attended Santa Barbara Christian School, went to Dos Pueblos High for one year (played on the water polo team) and transferred to Santa Barbara High to study in the school’s Multimedia Arts and Design (MAD) Academy. He’s now home schooled due to his busy traveling schedule.
“When I’m home I usually paddlesurf at Silver Strand, Little Rincon, Hobsons, or around the Mesa by my house,” he said.
Becker is committed to the sport. He trains five to six days a week.
“I do all of my gym workouts at Platinum Fitness in Summerland, and I train on my raceboard at Leadbetter Beach three days a week,” he said.
Asked who are the best in the sport, Becker said in racing it’s Danny Ching (Redondo Beach) Jamie Mitchell (Australia) and Hawaiians Conner Baxter and Dave Kalama. In paddlesurfing, he cited Hawaii’s Kai Lenny, Ikaika Kalama, and Zane Schweitzer and Frenchman Peyo Lizarazu.
“There’s a lot of other names that should be listed but these are the first that come to mind,” he said.
Becker said he hasn’t made any definite goals for himself in the sport.
“My plan is to do what I’ve been doing all along, which is progressing as much as I can because it’s fun… and I’ll see where it goes.”
