Growing up in Margaret River, WA, Olympic hopeful Jack Robinson confesses there weren’t a lot of options for his future career path. From an early age, a young Jack would sit on the banks of WA, looking out at the group of surfers navigating the breaks; he knew then there was only one path he was willing to take.

“My dad was a surfer and I was kind of just born into it,” Robinson told DMARGE when we visited the Red Bull HQ, here in Sydney.

“We lived on the west coast where there are waves, but there’s not much else to do. It’s the most isolated city in the world. So, I mean, I wasn’t really going to do much else, maybe be a farmer, but what am I gonna do?”

The WA native started surfing at age 3 and didn’t once look back. By 11, he was navigating the notorious Pipeline in Hawaii. For a young Jack Robinson, looking at his heroes such as 3x World Champion (and fellow Red Bull athlete) Mick Fanning tearing it up, his trajectory was more or less set from a very early age.

“Around five years old, I kind of knew which direction I was going in. It was really young, but I already had my idols – all these guys like Kelly Slater. I was like ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to be there one day.’ So it’s really funny at such a young age, but I already knew the path without even thinking – just instinctually.”

Throughout the Australian surfer’s career, the title “child prodigy” has followed like a prophecy that’s yet to be fulfilled. Labelled the heir to Kelly Slater’s throne, a young Jack Robinson was thrust into the limelight from an early age, gracing the cover of Weekend Australian magazine at age 14 – whether he had planned it or not, Robinson was already destined to do great things.

Of course, France is known for a lot of things – croissants, arts and romance – but surfing through the Seine certainly isn’t one of them and doesn’t quite boast the same pedigree as some of the world’s better surfing spots.

So Surfing, in its second year at the Olympic Games, will be held at one at a spot that Jack knows all too well – and the gold medallist hopeful teases that Olympic surfing at the iconic Teahupo’o, Tahiti could be the event of the summer.

“If we get really good swell, I feel like it would be the craziest arena for surfing to ever happen,” Robinson confessed. “It’s just over shallow reef. It’s such a short intense ride like it’s literally the most wild wave you have ever seen and the most beautiful.

“So I feel like there just be in for such a treat online like you won’t want to leave the screen because it’s just the craziest wipeouts – it’s the craziest rides and I feel like it’s gonna be a great spectacle.”