What can you say about a surfer who earns a place amongst the 44 best surfers on the planet, in just his first attempt to do so? What can you say about a guy who won the World Titles in all his age groups as he went through his teens? What can you say about a kid who’s only just turned 21 and already has superstars like Kelly Slater looking over their shoulder?
Future world champ is what you can say, because if any young surfer in Australia looks like wrestling the title from a decade full of American surfing heroes, it’s this 21 year-old from the New South Wales mid-north coast town of Old Bar.Exceeding expectations
When Dunn qualified easily for the 2007 World Championship Tour (WCT) in just his first year on the tough World Qualifying Series (WQS) he became one of the first surfers in history to do so. Most surfers take time to find their feet on the exhausting WQS tour, but not Dunn, it was inevitable the kid would crack the tour, but it surprised even the man himself that he made it on his first attempt. “I didn’t expect it, that’s for sure,” he says. “It was meant to be a learning year before I launched a full-on assault on the WQS in 2007.”
Making the pros nervous
Incredibly, ven before the Hawaiian leg of the WQS in December 2006, Dunn had already done enough to secure his place. “I was pretty damn happy about that,” he says. “I didn’t want it to come down to Hawaii.” A ninth placing in a 6-Star WQS in Brazil had guaranteed that, but it was his breakthrough win in May in Japan that completely turned his fortunes around. After an uncharacteristically shaky start to the Tour, Dunn completely dominated the whole contest and left a lot of older, more experienced competitors, including many from the WCT, drowning in his wake.Dunn rides the waves
Ben Dunn