Stuart Kennedy, Avalon Beach, Australia

Luke Schuetrumpf, who shot this photo, has been shooting photos for a little over one year. Last christmas, he got a new Cannon 60D with 300mm lens and has been going loony with it since. After school, his mum drops him at the beach with his surfboard and camera gear – if the surf’s on and there’s good surfers out, Luke hunts for angles and shoots all afternoon. If there’s no-one around and the waves are junk, he goes for a paddle. Oh, and something else about Luke – the kid’s 14 years old.

Luke, who’s inspired by photog Matthew O’Brien’s eye for angles, knew he wanted to be a photog the first time he scored memory card gold with a coupla good surfing shots. The day you see above, he called a couple of friends to see if they were keen on an Avalon session. After no replies, he headed down on his own and noticed Stuart Kennedy cleaving through the crowd. Stu’s air-reverse, pictured above, was a land – right in the middle of the swimming flags.

According to Luke, the ideal photo is the one that makes someone go “wow”, and this photo above is certainly a “wow” image.