Austin Close grew up in Ormond Beach, Florida and lived with his mother in a small beachside house opposite the beach. Once he turned five, and was allowed to cross the road to the beach on his own and his whole world became centered around the ocean.

Austin was first taught to ride a surfboard by his older brother and then spent every hour outside of school riding all manner of craft in the often small waves of Ormond Beach. He has described himself as the quintessential Floridian beach rat.

He showed promise as a junior surfer, but a combination of a lack of local events, little resources to travel to interstate competitions and a commitment to his studies meant he mostly flew under the radar.

That changed after graduation, when Austin first moved to Jacksonville Beach, and then later to California. While his trademark long blonde locks didn’t stand out in Orange County, his punchy surfing style did. With his high energy froth levels, work ethic, and ability to learn fast, he turned heads both in and out of the water.

After the stint in California, Clouse returned to Jacksonville. There he was nurtured by the incredibly close-knit surf community and picked up a little support from the industry. All the time he’d been working, often tending bar during nights and doing electrical work during the day. The goal is to build a war chest that he can use to travel and take his surfing and his infectious attitude to the wider world.

His goal is not to only get barrelled off his head (a rarity at Jacks Beach), but to show other surfers with similar backgrounds that with talent, desire, and hard work, you can make opportunities for a better life based around surfing.

Instagram: @austinclouse