JASON BUTTENSHAW, DURANBAH, MID-80s. Photo: Martin Tullemans

The shot that adorned every starry-eyed grommet’s bedroom wall in the ‘80s. Super grom Jason Buttenshaw set the surfing world alight as a teenager, with a loose, fast, gymnastic style and maturity beyond his years. Butto became renowned as a giant killer, beating many of the top pro surfers of the day, before a broken leg at the 1988 Coke Classic in Manly hobbled his pro career. Marty Tulleman’s picture perfect water shot at Duranbah captured Butto’s cool composure and effortless grace and fuelled thousands of grommet fantasies. The sheet glass water, the fluoro colour palette, Butto’s instinctive positioning, the hand in the wall, all combine to create a portrait of Gold Coast surfing nirvana. In an era of manual focus, cumbersome water housings, and slide film with just 36 exposures to work with, this pin-sharp, perfectly composed water shot was a significant achievement. Marty remained one of the Gold Coast’s most prolific and colourful surf photographers over four decades, before his passing in 2020 after a long illness.