A Sunshine Coast 11-year-old has emerged one of Australia’s hottest young surfing prospects.
Even at his tender age, Moffat Beach’s Hunter Andersson continues to carve a path to the pro ranks, accepting invitations to coveted junior events and managing a growing profile by having fun.
He is attending a camp at Surfing Australia’s High-Performance Centre (HPC) in Casuarina this weekend, before contesting the Rip Curl GromSearch final at Melbourne’s URBNSURF wave pool on March 15.
Hunter also is poised to take part in the Woolworths Surfer Groms Series national final.
“He’s moving along quite nicely,” his dad Michael said.
“I think his mental attitude to surfing is really good.”
Hunter is just one of eight prospects in his age group to be invited to the HPC event, after winning a Woolworths Surfer Groms competition for under-14s on the Gold Coast.
The reigning state under-12 champion is determined to win the event.
“There’s going to be a lot of groms there who are ripping, so it would be fun to win that one,” he said.
“It will be fun to be there anyway.”
Hunter was invited to the Melbourne competition after claiming second place at the Rip Curl GromSearch series event on the Sunshine Coast in December.
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He’ll be amid a 20-strong field at the final, with other series event finalists and wildcards.
“I’m going to come up against people I’ve never come up against before, so it will be really fun to have a few heats with them,” he said.
Hunter is well prepared for the elimination event, after getting a taste of the wave pool a couple of months ago.
“I love it. The wave picks up out of nowhere and it just runs all the way down the concrete slab,” he said.
“You can do barrels and turns and whatever and it’s super clean.”
“It’s easy to get up (on the wave). It’s just like a normal wave but it has a bit more push.”
His dad said they gained valuable experience there on their prior visit.
“It was really good. He did all the barrel waves and everything like that,” Michael said.
“But Rip Curl are putting it on a secret wave setting for this event.
“The kids will get three hours to practise on it, before the competition starts.’
Hunter’s coach Matt Clark told sunshinecoastnews.com.au in December that the young gun was the most talented young board rider he’d ever seen.
“His technique for his age is flawless,” Matt said.
“His decision-making is more what you’d expect from double his age…. and he’s not hesitant to pull into five-or-six foot barrels.”
Hunter surfs four to seven times a week, mainly at Wurtulla.
