Shaun Manners has been hot property since he landed that air at North Point.

Well he was hot before that but that thing solidified him among the exclusive league of surfing’s most talented free surfers. Over Christmas at the pub in Margs, a rare moment of friends all back home for family time, Manners spoke about the move to Former from Globe. Not in a money-grabbing kind of way but in confidence as someone who respected the opinions of the tight-knit group that is Margaret River. Chug still looks up to everyone and wants to make them proud, despite the fact he’s the one a lot of people would be looking up to now. His ease and the way he talks about things suggest he’s done a lot of reflecting, and growing up since the last time he was in the East.

For the better part of last year, Chug has been living out the back of his dad Matt Manner’s shaping bay and looking after himself. After an injury that saw him out of the water and quickly en route to the destructive path natural for those talented people who don’t know where to put their talent, time at home put him back surfing comfortably. Comfortable is not usually a word associated with the heavy waters of the West, but that’s what it is for Shaun. I ask him jokingly if the seas part ways when he paddles out, and he just laughs, ‘I mean it’s heaving I’m going.’ Respect is gained where respect is due.

A few weeks back, I ran into him sneaking into the Pavement concert, head down trying not to draw any attention to himself. Two front covers on Surfing World and The Surfer’s Journal would do that to a person, but this is the standard for humble Shaun. I wondered if the Subaru Brumby I spotted in the carpark checking the surf earlier was him, but I remembered it didn’t have WA plates and I honestly wasn’t convinced that thing would make it across the Nullarbor. He waves, says hello and slots in next to Noa Deane who he will soon be following down south to live. Word is, it was Noa that put Shaun in touch with Craig and Dane when the whispers of Globe’s surfing sponsorship were nearing the end but it’s common knowledge that Shaun without a sticker would be the end of surfing as we know it.

‘If I could tell little 13 year old me, sitting in his room on the floor, squinting at a shitty old television watching Craig & Dane on repeat that they were one day going to sponsor me with their own brand…I reckon my little lid would have popped! I’m so stoked to be on FORMER. It’s a funny feeling when the brands founders rip harder than you and you just gotta try keep up!’

With an upcoming trip filming for FORMER’s team movie due to be released in October Shaun is back in the East chasing new waves to conquer and trying to keep the balance of too much of a good thing in order. A signature collection landing at the end of the year might help with that but it looks like he’s tapped into the same pool of self-assurance that comes from growing up from being just a talented kid, as Craig and Dane did all those years ago. You don’t land on a brand like FORMER otherwise. Welcome to the team.