Surfer Jack Robinson: ‘You can get ahead of yourself … it’s about enjoying the ride too’

Australian surfer Jack Robinson recently posted two images on Instagram. In the first, a 12-year-old Robinson glides effortlessly through a barrel at G-Land. With his knee bent, one hand on the rail of his surfboard and the other caressing the water, Robinson looks at home in the heart of the wave.

The second image, taken during the recent World Surf League event at the same famous Indonesian break, which Robinson won, is almost identical. Same wave, same stance, same style – but with 12 years separating the photos. “Then and now,” he wrote.

The similarity between the images is fitting. Ever since Robinson was a child, he has been regarded as the next big thing in surfing. The West Australian started surfing at three and was charging Pipeline, a famously-heavy Hawaiian wave, by age 11. In 2010 the Weekend Australian magazine put Robinson on the cover and called him the next Kelly Slater. That same year, Quiksilver, a major surfing label, took Robinson to G-Land on one of his first sponsored trips – when the initial photo was taken.

“It’s so long ago now,” Robinson says of the G-Land montage. “It’s pretty wild to think – we’ve done so much work to get where we are. To come back and be there again, it’s quite surreal hey – full circle.”

Robinson is currently riding on a high, having won his home-town WSL event at Margaret River in May and then triumphed at G-Land earlier this month. The consecutive victories have elevated him to No 2 in the world rankings and put him in WSL championship contention with four events remaining until the finals (the Surf City El Salvador Pro is currently underway). No Australian man has been crowned WSL champion since Mick Fanning in 2013; suddenly, Robinson is on the verge of a major