Ronnie "Skull" Hill, the king of jetboarding, ruler of Shark Island

Dirty Water: The BeachGrit Podcast featuring Chas Smith and Derek Rielly

If you were in Sydney at the end of March, y’would’ve thrown yourself into the dreamiest of four-to-six-foot barrels, pretty wedges wiped smooth by an all-day north-west wind.

Day of the year at most places, one of the best days ever at my local etc.

At Cronulla, home to some of the city’s finest reefs including but not limited to Voodoo and Shark Island, spectators were thrilled when local legend Ronnie “Skull” Hill fired up his homemade jet-board at the Island, scooping up waves from outside and deep on the reef, before riding to glory.

Following a post on the Instagram account @sufads, however, the figurative knives came out from surfers apparently jealous of Skull’s innovative and effective approach to wave-riding.

After wathcing this i think im now done with surfing forever.”

“Tbh you have to give the man credit, he has been a pest at shark island for years however on Sunday during a bodyboard comp managed to run through the lineup for about 30 mins. Every single person there told him to fuck off and he just kept doing laps kinda finding it funny hahahahahahaha.”

“Is this guy trolling? Looks like hes really trying to piss off the lids??”

“…this warrants violence.”

Are you pro or anti-jet-board? I’m in the former camp though fear I may be in the minority.

This interview took place at Island Inflatables at Menai, just west of Cronulla, where Ronnie has a workshop and where one may examine his miraculous surf-craft.