ANDO’S ECLECTIC QUIVER

Craig “Ando” Anderson is gliding through his 30s in much the same way he surfs. Laidback, goofy, with a casualness that could be mistaken for lack of focus. But those who know him will tell you it’s quite the opposite: the by-product of a thousand hours of intense perfectionism with myriad board and fin combinations under his feet.

“I’m a bit of a perfectionist with my work,” the 33-year-old freesurfer says. “When I watch footage of myself at the end of a project, I can see waves that an editor would see and be like, ‘that wave looks insane’. But I would know exactly how that wave had felt and how it didn’t feel right. I wouldn’t want it in a video section.”

While us mere mortals have seen nothing but perfection in his famous lines, Craig has always been his own harshest critic.

After decades of chasing flawless waves, getting pitted and photographed in rare corners of the globe for a living, the South African-born, Aussie-raised freesurfer is finally easing his foot off the accelerator as he approaches 33. The pandemic has forced him, like most of us, to do something he would never have imagined when he began his dream