Kai Hing, discarding the tail in Simuelue, Indo

For a 17-year-old, Kai Hing has been through a hell of a lot. The Sunshine Coast grom is ridiculously well travelled, but it was his latest trip to Simuelue with filmer Shane Fletcher that really opened his eyes. “On the trip over our flight apparently caught fire,” says lensman Shane Fletcher. “It was the worst smell. Kai said it was like burning rubber and wet dog (laughs). So they turned the plane around and we ended up missing two days of waves. There was supposed to be four days of peak swell but we only caught the end of it. Kai took it all in his stride and surfed as good as he always does.”