With his dizzying acrobatics, focused ambition and astute demeanor; Dane Henry is rapidly emerging as the ultimate modern surfer.
If you were to design a future surfing World Champion and a poster boy for the sport, it would look a lot like Dane Henry. At just 19, he carries himself with a maturity beyond his years. He’s polite, well-mannered and confident on camera. But don’t mistake his kindness for weakness. Beneath the blonde mop and soft smile lies a ruthless competitive edge that he likes to sharpen in any kind of competitive setting.
“Even when me and my mates go bowling, I have to smoke them,” he tells me. Pair that mentality with his progressive flare and lofty ambitions – landing the first documented double backflip and becoming World Number One – and Dane looks every bit like the champion I asked you to design at the opening of this piece.
Before 2024, Dane was a relatively unknown fixture outside his Fingal Head base and the surrounding Gold Coast area. That changed during a routine summer training session at D-Bah, when he landed the two biggest airs of his career – a sun-tickling full rotation and a backflip, a manoeuvre he has since become synonymous with.
Surfing Australia filmer, Owen Milne, captured both waves and shared a clip of his camera screen into a group chat. By the time Dane paddled in and checked his phone back at the car park, it was already lighting up. Both clips went viral online and the likes of Joel Parkinson, Noa Deane, Kolohe Andino and Mick Fanning all chimed in, heaping praise on the teenager.
One of the viral airs in question. Photo: Swilly.“I know that those two airs really put me on the map,” admits Dane. “I had about 7,000 followers on Instagram at the time and after those clips, alongside winning the ISA World Juniors, I ended that hype ...
