1:42p.m. 9th November 2007

Julian Wilson demonstrates his new surfing manoeuvre, the Sushi Roll. Photo: Quiksilver/Shield

Coolum teenager Julian Wilson has added another surfing first to his ground-breaking career by inventing and naming his own aerial manoeuvre.

During a photo shoot for Australia’s Surfing Life magazine in Japan, he performed an aerial manoeuvre that is a startling combination of a “Superman” (made popular by free-style motocross riders) and a twisting, carving, backhand loop.

It’s a world first, and with that comes both bragging rights and naming rights.

Wilson has appropriately dubbed the aerobatic manoeuvre “The Sushi Roll”.

“I was just surfing one day and I flew out of the back of the wave and then the board got away from me and I pulled off that Superman manoeuvre,” he said.

“It felt really comfortable.

“So I started trying it a couple of times. A few days later, I went to Japan on an ASL trip and turned it into The Sushi Roll, which they got on film.”

It caps of a whirlwind 12 months which has seen the 18-year-old defeat eight-time world champion Kelly Slater (USA), bag a string of wins on the Australasian Pro Junior circuit and become the youngest-ever recipient of the industry’s coveted Breakthrough Performer of the Year award.

A starring role in Quiksilver’s Young Guns 3 surf film has also made him a media darling in the US.

Wilson will end the year in Hawaii, shooting photos for his sponsors as he tackles the island’s huge waves, before returning to Australia in preparation of an assault on the World Qualifying Series in 2008.