Matt Wilkinson : photo Poullenot/ASPEurope.com

RIP CURL PRO SURF & MUSIC FESTIVAL
Plage Nord Estagnots, Hossegor, France
Aug 21-28, 2006

Rip Curl Super Series WQS (August 21-27)
Rip Curl Pro Junior 2 star (August 18-20)
Rip Curl European GromSearch Final (August 20)

Live Coverage  |  Results/Photos/Videos etc  |   Video Premiere: Mick Myself & Eugene 

High Performance Day of Surfing for the Pro Juniors

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 18 August, 2006 : - - Mother Nature was as accurate as ever in Southern France today delivering a challenging 6ft swell right on time for the start of this year’s Rip Curl Pro Junior 2 star at Plage Nord Estagnots in Hossegor. The solid waves held up all day and allowed the young surfers (all aged under 21) to perform high level maneuvers and maximize copious scoring opportunities.

Round 1 competition started at 9.30am this morning and Round 2 was completed by 6.30pm this afternoon. Rounds 3 and 4 plan to be finished tomorrow, setting the contest up for an exciting finals finish on Monday. There were plenty of highlights from Rounds 1 and 2 today, but the two surfers who impressed most were Australian Matt Wilkinson and Hawaiian TJ Barron.

Barron was the first of the two in the water this morning, winning Heat 4 of Round 1 with a two-wave combined score of 17.63 points. This was the highest score of the day. The impressive win advanced him to Round 2 where he matched up against Dion Atkinson (AUS), Rudy Marechal (FRA) and Stuart Campbell (GBR).

TJ Barron : : photo Poullenot/ASPEurope.com

The 20-year-old started his Round 2 assault slowly, but an 8.00 and a 6.83 late in the heat were good enough to surge him to first ahead of Atkinson, Marechal and Campbell respectively. "The conditions are kind of tricky, but the waves are really good I think," said Barron. "The toughest part is being in the right spot and picking the right waves, but overall it's really good."

"I just tried to look for anything I could get a turn on," continued the Hawaiian. "Luckily I picked a couple of waves I could get three or four turns on." "France is cool and really fun and I enjoy myself a lot when I'm here. The conditions are really good and I like how we've got three Pro Junior events in a row, because it makes it easy. France is definitely a fun place to come to."

Former ISA Under 16 World Champion Matt Wilkinson was on fire in of Round 1, scoring a near-perfect 9.70 on his final wave to record a 17.84 two-wave score in Heat 7. Wilkinson performed a series of critical top turns before finishing the wave off with a small aerial move. The 9.70 was the highest score of Round 1.

"I only got back to Hossegor from the event in Lacanau about 1 hour ago, so I'm stoked to get straight out there and win my heat with some big scores," said Wilkinson this morning. The 18-year-old wasn't finished for the day though and moved confidently into Round 2. Surfing in heat 13 against Dimitri Ouvre (FRA), Luis Castanheira (PRT) and Alex Grey (USA), Wilkinson started the heat the way most dream of - lodging a brilliant 9.90 score on his very first wave.

Robson Santos : photo Poullenot/ASPEurope.com

Holding a commanding lead he cruised for the rest of the heat and added a 4.33 to secure first place overall and advance to Round 3. His 9.90 and 9.70 rides are the two highest scores of the day. "The conditions are really good and it's great to have some size," continued Wilkinson. "It was really fun today and I hope the conditions hold up through to the finals."

Another standout this afternoon was USA surfer Chris Waring. The American paddled out in heat 9 of Round 2 and demolished the final two waves of his heat to post a heat score of 17.84 points, which matched Barron's 'day-high' efforts in Round 1. "It was fun, rippable and clean," claimed Waring directly after the heat. "I stayed really focused and didn't pay attention to the other surfers. I sat for a while and then caught a good set and linked good turns. I am really stoked."

All Pro Junior surfers and event officials will meet at the Hossegor contest site tomorrow morning for an 8am call on competition. Rounds 3 and 4 are expected to finish tomorrow, with the finals climaxing on Sunday.

LIVE WEBCAST On www.ripcurl.com/ripcurlpro each day of the event.

For the Pro Junior we have live scoring and results, while on Monday our Live Video Webcast Stream will being with various camera angles, highlights and replays, weather and scoring information, direct viewer interaction, celebrity guests, interviews and more.

Video Premiere: Mick Myself & Eugene 

Previous reports:
# 1 : Coming soon
# 2 : Coming soon
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon 
 

New! Get the latest news with Surfersvillage News-Alerts

  Updated & Revised European Surforecasts
  More European surfing news available here

Dane Sharp

Junior contests - Surfersvillage