Profile
Pritch the skateboader
Pritch picked up a skateboard at the age of 15 and continued to travel to competitions and demonstrations over the world. He got sponsored in his late teens and turned pro in his early 20’s for a skate company called Panic skateboards. From then on he was getting paid to do what he loved and travelled the world doing it. He’d ride for other skate companies over the years from Rookie skateboards, Death skateboards along with various clothing companies. He’s also rode for many shoe companies over the years to, Etnies shoes, Evol & Globe shoes.
Pritch managed to get a job as a team manager for Globe shoes whilst still riding for them. He also had his very own Pro skate shoe with Globe called the SWYD. The first batch of SWYD shoes that came out were number 1 sellers in the UK & Australia.
Pritch the TV personality
While working at Double over head distribution (distributors of globe in the UK at the time) in Porthcawl he and his mate Dainton started filming for the first Pritchard vs Dainton video. This was the video the would start the next chapter in his life when MTV gave them a call and Dirty Sanchez hit the screens in 2001. From then on it was like someone had shaken a bottle of champagne vigorously and popped the madness. From here MTV took him all over the world filming for the first, 2nd and 3series of Dirty Sanchez. Then came the Movie ’The seven deadly sins’ and 2 follow up shows for him and Daint ‘Wrecked’ & ’Sanchez gets high’ this was one of Pritchards favourite shows to film. From there he also filmed 2 shows with Pancho called ‘Balls of steel’ & ‘Death wish live’.
Pritch the Endurance Athlete
Since 2009 when matt looked himself up and down and realised he looked like a wright off he then made it his mission to get fit and start looking after himself. His goal was the cardiff half marathon that he did firstly many years again at the age of 15. He completed the marathon and from there he said some very big fitness goals over the years and never looked back. He was burning the candle at both ends at one point with his partying and fitness but slow but surely the party was the one that took the back seat.
Challenges and Achievements
- Ran 900 miles from John O’Groats to Lands end in 30 days
- Cycled John O’Groats to Lands end in 7 days
- Half Marathon everyday for 30 days
- 30 Half iron distance triathlons in 30 days (world record at the time)
- First person to circumnavigate Wales via triathlon
- Walked from Cardiff to Dublin
- Cycled from Cardiff to Dublin
- Ran the Cardiff half marathon in full fireman outfit complete with breathing apparatus
- Completed a double iron distance triathlon
- Completed a triple iron distance triathlon
- Completed a continuous deca (10 full iron distance triathlons in one) in just over 10 days
- Swam lake Ullswater & Lake Windemere
- Lake Windemere challenge WATCH HERE
- Rowed across the Atlantic Ocean from Fuertaventura to Antigua in 52 days
- Rowed the Irish Sea
With all the fame and fortune that was coming in from all over the world the boys also took what they did on the screen and onto the road ready for some live shows at music festivals, nightclubs etc. The rock’n’roll train wasn’t stopping yet, if anything it was about to get turned up a notch. Tour buses craziness was a daily and still to this day their the only band to have been banned and chucked off a tour bus on an Italian motorway and left.
The band slowly started braking up like the perfect rock’n’roll story but Pritchard and Daint carried on the madness back in the UK and the holiday islands of Spain and Greece for many years until it all started taking its toll on their relationship too. I clocked off from touring and Dirty Sanchez life in 2014 and used what id saved to build my first Tattoo & Barber shop in the city centre of Cardiff called SWYD tattoo & Barber shop.
Towards the end of 2020 when the world was in COVID madness he got asked if he’d like to take a seat in a rowing boat to go across the Atlantic Ocean from Lanzarotte to Antigua. He said yes straight away and began trying in his living room in his house with a rowing machine. He then left the country with his other 3 team mates to start their mission across the big pond. They completed it in 52 days.
After becoming the first person to circumnavigate Wales via triathlon swimming from Penarth sea from and over to Porthcawl ready for his big cycle taking in Anglesa and finishing in Prestatyn ready to to on the 177 Offas Dyke path run which will take hime back to cardiff in time for his last marathon the Cardiff half.
Pritch the cook
In 2015 he started to look into veganism and once he watched the documentary Cowspiracy he literally went vegan the next day and started his veganism journey right there. Of course he was treated with all kinds of piss takin and many not understanding why but he made it his mission to go out there and prove to people that just because he was eating and living as a vegan it wasn’t going to make him “weaker” as many warned him it would. I think his successful challenges over the years have proved many different.
He looked at YouTube to get some recipe inspiration for new vegan ways of cooking and whilst doing so he realised that there was a gap in the market to have a YouTube channel dedicated to vegan food introduced in Matts unique style so he started one up with James Therlfal & Peter Pickford and called it Pritchards Proper vegan cooking.
It was an instant hit and before he knew it he was sitting in the BBC offices talking of filming the UK’s first vegan cooking show. He signed it off with One tribe and the BBC in 2017 and the first show aired on BBC Wales Monday 7.30pm . It then played series 2 for veganuaryj 2019 and also had 2 published books from the show Dirty vegan and Dirty Vegan Another Bite
After compleating the triathlon challenge it was put on the tv a documentary Wildman to Ironman on th BBC. After this documentary aired he then managed to film two cooking shows Dirty Vegan 1 & 2. Dirty Vegan was the first vegan cooking show to hi UK screens. Off the back of the shows there we’re two published cookbooks
Mathew continues to keep himself busy and is always on the search for that next challenge/adventure. He’s also gathering all these memories to bring them to life in a few books.