Koa Davies learned to surf before he could walk.
Now the 6-year-old local Cowaramup boy is beating other children in surfing competitions and taking on waves almost four times his height.
He has just achieved his first victory in a competition at the Gero Grom Fest, where he won the under-eight category and surfed the best wave of the competition.
“I had a 9.5 ride,” he said.
“[I’m feeling] really good.”
He credits three greats for his early success: “Jack Robinson, Kelly Slater and my dad,” and has one goal in mind.
“[One day I want to] win world titles,” he told ABC.
His father, Jarrad Davies, is confident his son will one day be a renowned surfer.
“Before he could walk we had him on a board. I used to pick him up and put him on it before he could remember,” she said.
“[He’s surfed] a five-foot wave, that is, four times above your head.
Mr Davies noticed his son’s talent when he was four years old at the mouth of the Margaret River.
“I pushed him into some waves on a hard board… that allowed him to lean and turn, and he started surfing,” Davies said.
“It just blew me away.”
Epicenter of surfing in WA
Koa lives in what Surfing WA CEO Mark Lane has called the “epicenter of surfing in WA”.
Currently some of the best surfers in the world are in their hometown for the Margaret River Pro.
Lane said the area, which just secured the popular surfing event through 2028, has produced some of the best surfers in the world and will continue to do so.
“Having Brontë Macaulay here, I was watching her the other day with the girls, where she would step forward and the girls would follow,” Lane said.
“And then, of course, having Jack Robinson and Jacob Willcox on tour. A lot of these little kids grew up with them and realize they’re just like them.”
“Some rippers are coming.
“I think we are at the forefront of looking at the future of young WA surfers.”
