Last winter I surfed oversize Queenscliff Bommie with a mate. It was a weekday morning and we were the only two out there. It wasn't great - bit inconsistent, funky direction - but Bommie days are rare so we were out there regardless.

An hour into the session a lone figure started stroking towards the bommie from the south. As the figure got closer I recognised it as 16-year-old Sam Jones paddling a Carl Lamaitre shaped 8-footer. He explained he'd been surfing the Bower but decided to make the paddle to the Bommie - by himself mind you, and through 10-foot seas - just to see what it was like. He didn't even know if anyone was out there.

Surfers may come in all kinds and constitutions but it takes elemental desire to chase waves in that way. It's a desire common to all heavy water surfers, and that seems the most natural path for Sam to take. He's always the first out at Deadman's, knows Winki inside and out, and is starting to spread his wings beyond the Manly reefs.

Sam Jones is still in school lockdown, his university and work life are yet to begin and they could take him anywhere in the world. But Sam's surfing life already appears locked into a fixed path: big, square, and shallow.

Photos taken by Toby Manson on the NSW south coast. Video footage by Toby and Joel Barker.