Eli Steele, and a frigid huck, Sunshine Coast

This strategy behind this photo was to shoot super early and looking back into the buildings with the sun reflected back into the surfer. Front lit, back lit, a halo of light. An abyss of unbelievable phosphorescence. Mitch Coleborn’s idea, too, although here we see his surf pal Mr Eli Steele, an 18-year-old surfer who is just starting to raise a lather of sweat among the media. Let’s hear about his repertoire. “He’s got a wild down carve and a hack and a really nice stale. Not a lot of good guys have a nice stale. Eli gets a lot of tail height and he grabs it real strong,” says Matt O’Brien.