Adrian Buchan has long been a media darling: good looking, well-spoken, intelligent. He can always be relied on for a killer quote, clever blog post and even the odd kiddies book when he has some downtime. He is a man of words and deeds.

To the outsider his ability to articulate and express himself in words seems all too easy. God given even. Yet Ace has put years of work into his craft and we can vouch for it. Here it is, Ace's earliest media interaction - a letter penned to Tracks in 1988 when he was five (click 'enlarge' on image at right).

Hey, it might read like a piece of shameless self-promotion, but Ace knew how to play the game. Even before he began school and was charging the local shorebreak with his legrope on the wrong foot he knew that people weren't gonna come knocking on his door. Clever little fella he was.

And now it seems all the hard work has paid off. Ace is a fixture in the top 45 with a swag of healthy sponsor contracts and one top tier contest title under his belt. His parents must be proud as punch...