Matt Dee, the Bondi Rescue lifeguard, has died
By Visit Bondi Beach Editorial Team · · Updated
Part of our Bondi Rescue guide.
Matt Dee, the former Bondi Rescue lifeguard who appeared on the show from 2008 to 2017, has died. His death was announced on the morning of Wednesday 2 September 2026 on the Instagram page of FTW Revolution, the suicide-prevention clothing label he co-founded and ran. His cause of death has not been made public.
A public celebration of his life was held at Bronte Beach on Saturday 12 September 2026. Hundreds came. His ashes were scattered beyond the break during a paddle-out, and then, on his own instructions, it became a party on the sand.
- Known for
- Bondi Rescue
- On the show
- 2008 to 2017
- Death announced
- 2 September 2026
- Public memorial
- Held at Bronte Beach, Saturday 12 September 2026
- Cause of death
- Not made public
Matt Dee's memorial at Bronte Beach
The send-off was a public one, held at Bronte Beach on Saturday 12 September 2026 from midday. It was announced by the North Maroubra Surf Riders rather than by his family - which tells you something about the crowd he belonged to. The plan, as they set it out, was a paddle-out with his ashes spread in the water, then food, drink, music and the part everyone actually comes for, which is standing around telling stories about him.
Next Saturday, we send off a true legend. A man that had time for everyone, a larrikin, a brother to all and a leader of men. His time with us has come to an end, but we owe it to him to send him off in style.
Hundreds of people came. His ashes were carried out into the surf and scattered beyond the break, with the surfers forming a circle on the water - the traditional surf burial - before they all came back in together on one wave. Friends and family carried flowers into the water and played the songs he liked. Then, as he had asked, it turned into a party on the sand: food, drinks, music and a lot of stories.
There's no race to the beach today, we're all coming in together.
That was the former lifeguard Daniel McLaughlin, calling it as everyone paddled back. His best friend Kev Goodall told the crowd what Dee had actually asked for: “All he said is, if I ever go, just make sure you guys make it a big party.” Goodall’s description of him is the one that keeps coming back from people who knew him - “he always made you feel like he was everyone’s best mate”. His father, John Dee, spoke about the work: “He saved a lot of lives. He talked a lot of people off a cliff.”
A paddle-out, if you have not seen one, is the surfing world's funeral rite: everyone paddles out past the break, forms a circle sitting on their boards, and there is usually a moment of quiet, some splashing of water and a lot of hollering. It is not solemn in the church sense. It is loud, and it is meant to be.
A fundraiser was set up to cover the funeral and farewell costs, which had passed $12,500 of an $18,000 goal when Yahoo Lifestyle reported on it on 7 September - we have not printed a running total since, because it moves. Donations had been made in the names of the Bondi Rescue lifeguard Harrison Reid and the boxer Harry Garside, among hundreds of others.
What happened to Matt Dee
The announcement came from FTW Revolution, the clothing and events brand he co-founded as a suicide-prevention resource aimed at young Australians. It was posted on the Wednesday morning alongside a photograph of him laughing, head thrown back, holding a beer - which is, by every account posted since, exactly how the people who knew him want him remembered.
It is with the heaviest of hearts that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of our Matt Dee. Matt touched the lives of many, he also did amazing work and he will be deeply missed and forever remembered by those who knew and loved him.
The same statement asked for patience with messages and pointed anyone struggling with the news toward support. No cause of death has been confirmed in the time since - The Nightly has reported that even close friends say they are unsure - and until his family chooses to say more there is nothing further to report on that, so this page will not speculate.
Who Matt Dee was
Dee was on Bondi Rescue for nine seasons, from 2008 to 2017 - long enough that if you watched the show through its most-watched years, you knew his face. The lifeguards on that show are not actors: they are the professional beach lifeguards who work this stretch of sand every day, and Dee was one of them through a period when the show turned an ordinary Australian workplace into something people watched in more than a hundred countries.
He grew up in Melbourne, raised with his brother and sister by their single mother, and the family holidayed at Torquay - which is where he learned to surf, and how a Victorian kid ends up working the busiest beach in New South Wales.
The work he did off the beach
What Dee became known for after the show is harder to watch than any rescue on it. He lost both of his siblings within about a year of each other. His older brother Jonathan, who lived with bipolar disorder, died at 34. His younger sister Rachel Bridger Dee, who had lived with schizophrenia for around a decade, died in December 2009 at 30.
He spoke about them publicly rather than privately, which is a choice, and not an easy one. In a 2011 interview with The Sun-Herald he was blunt about how he wanted his brother and sister understood:
What happened was not their fault. They did their best to manage their illnesses. It wasn't their fault. They had a problem inside their heads. It's something we don't understand. How would we know what it's like?
He became an ambassador for Suicide Prevention Australia and for the Schizophrenia Research Institute, and FTW Revolution - the label he co-founded around that advocacy - has raised at least $500,000 for Suicide Prevention Australia, according to the ABC. He described who it was built for in his own words: 'the underdogs in the trenches, the battlers in the dark places'.
He also spoke about carrying guilt over his siblings' deaths, and the feeling that he might have done more - which is worth recording, because it is the thing so many people left behind carry silently, and he said it out loud.
Tributes from the Bondi lifeguards
Tributes filled the announcement post within hours, including from the lifeguards he worked alongside and from the official Bondi Lifeguards account. Trent 'Maxi' Maxwell wrote 'Rest easy brother'. Ryan 'Whippet' Clark posted: 'Big love Matty Dee. You had a wild wide and you will be missed by many.' The NRL player Josh Dugan was among those paying tribute too. Among the hundreds of messages from people who only ever knew him through a television screen, the word that keeps coming back is that he was one of a kind.
Frequently asked questions
When was Matt Dee's memorial?
A public celebration of his life was held on Saturday 12 September 2026 from midday at Bronte Beach in Sydney's eastern suburbs. It was announced by the North Maroubra Surf Riders, and was planned around a paddle-out with his ashes spread in the water, followed by food, drinks and music on the beach.
Was Matt Dee's memorial open to the public?
Yes. It was announced publicly with an open invitation - 'we are calling on everyone to get down to Bronte' - so anyone who wanted to pay their respects could attend, and people were asked to bring their own board for the paddle-out.
Why was the memorial at Bronte rather than Bondi?
That has not been explained publicly, and we are not going to guess at it. Worth knowing either way: Bronte is a different beach and a different suburb, about 2 km south of Bondi Beach along the coastal walk, so the send-off for a Bondi lifeguard did not take place at Bondi.
What happened to Matt Dee from Bondi Rescue?
Matt Dee died, with his death announced on the morning of 2 September 2026 on the Instagram page of FTW Revolution, the suicide-prevention label he co-founded. The announcement described him as someone who 'touched the lives of many'. A public celebration of his life was held at Bronte Beach on 12 September 2026.
What was Matt Dee's cause of death?
It has not been made public. No cause of death has been confirmed by his family or in any published report, and The Nightly has reported that even close friends say they do not know. Anything circulating beyond that is speculation.
How old was Matt Dee?
His age has not been confirmed in Australian reporting of his death. One overseas entertainment site has published an age, but it is not corroborated by the ABC or any other outlet we would rely on, so we are not repeating it. His brother Jonathan died at 34 and his sister Rachel at 30.
When was Matt Dee on Bondi Rescue?
He appeared on Bondi Rescue from 2008 to 2017, nine seasons of the show.
What is FTW Revolution?
It is a clothing and events brand that Matt Dee co-founded and ran as a suicide-prevention resource for young Australians, and which the ABC reports has raised at least $500,000 for Suicide Prevention Australia. He was an ambassador for Suicide Prevention Australia and for the Schizophrenia Research Institute, advocacy he took up after losing his brother and sister within about a year of each other.
Was Matt Dee still a Bondi lifeguard?
No - he is described in reports of his death as a former Bondi Rescue lifeguard, and his time on the show ran from 2008 to 2017. The lifeguards currently patrolling Bondi are employed year-round by Waverley Council.
The lifeguards on this beach do a job most people only see the dramatic end of. If you want to know who is out there now, and what the service actually does across a season, our guide to the Bondi Rescue lifeguards is the place to start - and the coastal walk that gets you from Bondi down to Bronte is here.