Now 12, the Ulladulla Public School student is quickly proving to be one of the top talents, not just on the South Coast but in the country.

"Locally, I've won seven out of the nine under 14s competitions with the Ulladulla Boardriders," Jackson said.

"On a bigger scale, I placed second in the under 14s South Coast regionals, before reaching the quarter-finals at the GromSearch events at Newcastle and Jun Jac (Victoria).

"I'm most proud of my results in the GromSearch events because the kids I'm competing against are some of the best in Australia."

Jackson hopes these results will book him a spot at the GromSearch national finals at Wollongong next year.

Until then, he will be concentrating on excelling at the regional and state titles, in a hope of qualifying for the Australian under 14s titles.

"To keep improving and getting the results I want, I mainly have to work on my technique and tricks, such as airs," he said.

"The power will come to me as I get bigger but right now it's all about technique and reading the ocean."

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One person that's helping Koby take the next step is his father Vern.

"My dad has been in the surfing industry for a long time and has shaped close to 10,000 surfboards and has shaped lots of boards for top surfers," he said.

"It's really important for my dad to make my boards for what I'm doing now and into the future.

"To have dad shape my boards is really fortunate because not many kids on the South Coast have that advantage.

"Dad also competes so he helps me a lot when it comes to contests, knowing what boards to ride and what waves to ride."

As well as Vern, Koby credits the Ulladulla Boardriders Club as pushing him to be the best rider he can be.

"The Ulladulla Boardriders have some awesome surfers - every time I surf in the opens, it's always a stacked field full of quality surfers," he said.

"Some of the guys have been competing for close to 30 years and it feels really good when I knock some of those guys out."

As well as learning off both of these, Koby has continued to grow as a surfer on the back of countless international adventures.

"We have been going to Hawaii in December because that's the best time to surf Pipeline, Haleiwa and Sunset on the North Shore - not to mention it's mainly small around Ulladulla at that time of the year," he said.

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"Then we try to spend a month in Indonesia in winter because the water is freezing here and the waves in over there are perfect."

Despite all those adventures, one of his top recent memories in the surf came much closer to home.

"One of the highlights of the year was surfing an outer Bombie that my dad has been telling me about since I started surfing," he said.

"My dad knew it could be on and woke me at 4am to get ready to go surf it.

"I was stressing about getting held down if I didn't make it out but once we got out there, my dad said it's now or never - he knew I could make it.

"I had full trust in him and I can still remember being towed on to my first wave and nailing it."