Matt Upsher, Husband, Father, Brother, Son, Poet, Song Writer, Singer, Musician, Teacher, and Dear, Dear Friend passed away on Monday 13th September 2010 while surfing Perranporth in Cornwall on the South West Tip of the United Kingdom. Matt or ‘Mupsher’ as he was known to his friends was only 31 and a natural, easy going, fun natured guy who loved his Family firstly and then music and surfing with equal measure. He turned up in Cornwall at my door in early 2000 with Alex More while I was living in St Agnes. Two guys 21 years old and in love with surfing. Matt bought a new board, a Kevin Connelly longboard that never left him and was reshaped through the years ending up only 6ft in the end. We sank a few jars one night back in 2000 and a month later Matt was back in his Ford Escort and along with Alex and working silver service (something Matt loathed) in Newquay ended up staying in a brand new house I had bought only weeks after initially moving in. It did not take long for Matt to take up root and move to Cornwall for good in 2001/02 and after my Dad sorted a new mortgage for him accross the lawn where I lived he also became a neighbour. During what I would refer to as the ‘Fairy Tale’ years from Nineplus, Matt became a staple diet on the scene with the crew that made up the brand, surfing together, eating, partying and generally enjoying life. I remember vividly being with Steve Skinner from Skinners Brewery and ending up late at night back at his place on many occasions. Steve wanting to carry on through the nights would beg our friends to stay up with him, I would sneak of to bed and in the morning come down to Matt still up with the expression of ‘Rich, why did you leave me here again’ in his eyes. Two work colleagues ‘Adam Cotgreave’ and ‘Gordon Blake’ lived with Matt at the Retreat Court Address and it was here that Matt and Adam became great friends, inspired by their love for surfing but especially music. The Beatles, Ryan Adams, Counting Crows, Bruce Springsteen and many many more, the two of them would stay up for hours listening to tunes and I would leave them to it when the night drew to a close. Through the relationship with Adam, Matt met Adams sister Kate Cotgreave who would join us all and Matt fell in love almost immediately with her with they married in 2005. Also in recent years Matt’s Brother Tom and his wife Rhea followed setting up home in Perranporth and I know how much it meant to Matt to have his brother whom he loved so much to be near to him. Matt was what I would call a true friend and we laughed, cried, spoke lots, didn’t speak, drank, surfed, travelled and jested together and I honestly thought that our true friendship would be spoken of at the time I might marry rather than this page which is in memory to him. The stories I could write would fill hundreds of pages and involve so many tears of laughter and sadness that it is something at this time I couldn’t do. One of the most recent I will share was having a new style of wetsuit we have been working on which Matt saw at the factory and immediately knowing there was only two of them fancied himself in this new style. Something neither of us knew was the factory intended it to be a prototype and had not stitched any of the seams and only glued them. Matt stoked with his new suit, threw it on and paddled out only the have all the seams open up and have to get home with open seams all over. He calls me up and says ‘Balding, I am not happy’. Ha Ha, Matt I love you man. You never judged, never and I will miss your hugs for always. You knew my deepest pain in recent years and those people were few. You wondered life’s path and drank deep of its joys, You were unique and an individual and I will miss you so, so much. Rest in Peace my Brother.
Matt - You Rocked it.
Matt in the Nineplus Shop 2002