We all know surfers are real people. When you peep behind the curtain they have highs and lows, and monobrows that need plucking just like the rest of us (no? just us then!). They’re not mermaids, immune to life’s ennui and able to spend hours at sea without pruning themselves into oblivion. But when you follow them on Instagram it’s easy to forget all that and feel a rare depth of life envy. Here are the best surfers for stoking that feeling

1. STEPHANIE GILMORE Style, grace & poise both on and off the waves, plus a good dose of Aussie humour as the shot of her and Lisa Andersen eating melons, while showing us their um melons testifies too. 89K followers

2. SALLY FITZGIBBONS Sally’s also very funny and totally mad about sports, many of which are way beyond our radar but seem to involve her going on tv to discuss (go Sally!), in between posting heaps of epic action shots of course. 64K followers

3. KASSIA MEADOR Kassia’s kinda cheating on this one as she’s a photographer as well as a surfer (she’s shot many a cover for us including this Laura Enever one in fact) and that creative core shines through every shot she posts. 33K followers

4. LAURA ENEVER Most of the grams by Leonardo DiCaprio’s biggest fan involve lots of blonde hair and smiling but there’s a solid amount of surfing and travelling to cool places like Iceland thrown in too. 63K followers

5. ALANA BLANCHARD We discuss the motivations of our current cover star’s insane number of followers in more depth here but it’s hard to get sick of the beachy/blue sky everyday’s a dream kinda vibe. 609K followers

6. COCO HO Hawaii, sunsets, surfing, laughing with pals, cute slobbering dogs… Coco Ho comes across as super down to earth and a real laugh and we love her for it. 59K followers

7. MAYA GABEIRA The only big-waver to make our shortlist but we love Maya because she surfs bombs and sends good Brazilian vibes our way. 10K followers

But maybe we got this all wrong. Who are your favourite surfers on Instagram? Tell us below the line or at facebook.com/coolermagazine or twitter.com/coolermag