Claude Didn't Know Who Mitch Peterson Was — Now You Do - Stab Mag
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Mitch is on Rip Curl's "Next Gen" team. Five key brands have already invested in him. By the looks of this self-edited clip, the dividends are on the way.

Claude Didn’t Know Who Mitch Peterson Was — Now You Do

Watch the 17-year-old’s new edit ‘Clusta’, and you won’t forget him anytime soon.

cinema // Sep 20, 2026
Words by Christian Bowcutt
Reading Time: 2 minutes

“Who is the surfer Mitch Peterson?” I asked Claude.

“I didn’t find a surfer named ‘Mitch Peterson’,” our future overlord responded. “The closest match is Michael “MP” Peterson, so that may be who you mean.”

“Try Mitchell Peterson,” I said.

“I searched ‘Mitchell Peterson’ and still found nothing on a young Australian surfer by that name,” Claude concluded.

With 6,717 Instagram followers, 275 YouTube subscribers, and just a few years on the Pro circuit, Mitchell Peterson has still managed to wrangle the Thanos Infinity Stones of surf sponsorships: Rip Curl, Monster, Channel Islands Surfboards, Reef, and Futures.

Time for a new photo, brotha.

Who is this kid? He’s not extremely young — 17 (roughly 22 in surf years) — and he surfs extremely well. How has he evaded the public eye for this long?

Here’s what we do know about him: He’s from Noosa. He’s got five years on the Pro Junior circuit and four years on the QS. So far in the 2026/27 season, he’s already locked in a 9th place finish at the Phillip Island Pro and a respectable 17th place finish at the Gold Coast Open. He also edited the clip you see above all by himself.

What does this — a hyper-talented young surfer who surfed his first “pro” event at 11 years old and who edits his own stuff — point toward? A hard worker.

An attribute that, if you saw the latest LAGO podcast starring Stab’s founder Sam McIntosh, trumps natural ability as the surest predictor of whether a surfer will be able to generate the direct deposits required to pay their rent/mortgage in perpetuity.

Despite Mitch’s current low profile, it’s obvious that brands have already jumped on his Series A investment round and have found a winner.

Consider this edit his IPO. And that OTW wave his ROI.

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