The best surfer never to have won a world title. He’s also one of the most consistent competitors of all time, finishing in the top ten on tour year after year. But whilst this obviously makes him a very influential character it’s what he did in his early career which means he makes our list.

At a time when surfing was dominated by the momentum generation in California, Taj came along and added some Aussie flair and total unpredictability which helped shift surfing into a genuinely aerial sport. He also really kicked off the signature movie, where working on clips were more important than contests, and it is this which influenced an entire generation of surfers and fuelled the fire of many groms to start filming and putting clips online as we see today.