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Rising
Gold Coast surfer Dion Agius earned his biggest career pay cheque and a ticket
to compete in Hawaii later this month courtesy of a single move he performed while
free-surfing in Bali (more info below image). 
Agius
was captured on camera performing a yet-to-be-named new aerial surfing move, with
the vision winning the prestigious Kustom Shoot The Moon search to document the
most progressive aerial manoeuvre of winter. The win earned
Agius $10,000 and air tickets to Hawaii, which he plans to redeem later this year
to compete in a World Qualifying Series event at the infamous Sunset Beach. Fellow
competition surfer and sometime videographer Adam Bennetts, a professional lifeguard
on the Gold Coast, was awarded $3000, a Panasonic video camera and passage to
Hawaii for shooting the vision. Agius, a former national schoolboys
surfing champion who earlier this year was the equal highest placed Australian
in the World Junior Championships, said the prize would allow him to extend his
debut year on the World Qualifying Series. “A few years
ago I won an air show (surfing competition) and it had $10,000 first prize but
this is my biggest single pay day,” said Agius. “This
sort of competition pushes the sport forward. Rather than reward five turns to
the beach, Shoot The Moon invites people to do moves they may not normally try. “I
would love to see more contests like this. “I’m competing
on the WQS this year but I’m really excited by the all of the new moves that
the young guys are trying and I want to be part of it.” The
winning move has been described as a backside aerial barrel roll, but Agius said
he was not sure what it is called. “I don’t know
if it has a name yet but I know a few of us are doing them now,” he said. “It
was my second last surf in Bali and I hadn’t had a wave for half an hour.
I was just trying to get one in and this wave came up. A few people were in my
way at the start but then I had this good section. “I
tried the move and the wave just slowed down as I did it. When I landed I was
standing there saying ‘what the hell just happened?’” Bennetts
said Agius ran up the beach to check the vision and was ‘over the moon’
with the result. “He then went back and got another wave
and did a barrel roll, two more turns and an air reverse. He was just going off,”
said Bennetts. Shoot The Moon was run over four months by international
footwear brand Kustom in association with Australian Surfing Life magazine, MTV,
Panasonic and Hawaiian Airlines. | 
