A 21 year old from the Sunshine Coast has just aced Perth's 'The Doctor' downwind race from Rottnest Island to Sorrento Beach, taking with him a commanding advantage for next weekends King of the Cut, and a ton of respect from the global SUP community.

After placing behind Connor Baxter in this years Maui to Molokai race, Matt clearly had the skills to win a long distance downwinder on the right day, so when he found himself in the lead pack amongst world number two Travis Grant, and defending 'Doctor' champion, Beau O'Brian, he went for broke. Leading most of the race, it wasn't until the last thirty minutes that Travis Grant begun to tire, leaving the way open for Matt to pick some long runners and edge his way into the lead. There was only 17 seconds in it though, with an extremely close race considering the front pack had been paddling for over two hours! Beau ran up the beach only 30 seconds behind, for a photo finish with Unlimited division winner Dave Kissane.

Awarded with a white lab coat (and some healthy world ranking points) Matt was congratulated by Beau O'Brian just after the win. "So happy for my travel and training mate for winning the Doctor. He beat my record from last year too by 1 minute! Conditions were as good as it gets. It's pretty cool that us 3 guys have all had The Doctor Jacket."

Held in classic Perth downwinder conditions, 'The Doctor' was 27km of rolling ocean swell and 25 knots to push paddlers forward. With times from 2:08 (a race record) to 4:16, the fleet was varied in skill level, and the vibes were awesome. Considering this event sits in the shadow of next weekends King of the Cut race, it was great to see such a strong turnout on Rottnest Island, and some great results for paddlers.

Re-live the race action, or predict the winner of next weeks King of the Cut, with several international paddlers flying in for the occasion - all right here in the Stand Up Paddling forums .

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