Billabong Pro Junior Series

ASP Grade 1 Mens and Womens Pro Junior
Sunshine Coast Queensland Australia
6 - 11 February 2007

Billabong Pro Junior Series Relocates to Maroochydore and Coffs Harbour

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 15 January, 2007 : - - Gold Coast:  BILLABONG will continue its long standing commitment to junior surfing in Australasia announcing its continued funding of Pro Junior events in 2007. The company will pledge $75,000 in prize money alone, in support of Australasia’s ever-expanding abundance of talented junior surfers.

Developed in the early 1990s as a platform for young surfers aiming to become professionals, the Billabong Pro Junior Series is the country’s longest standing and richest domestic junior surfing circuit.  The five event series, open to aspiring male and female surfers aged 20-years and under, will comprise half of the overall ASP Australasian circuit, which culminates in the crowning of the ASP World Junior Champion at North Narrabeen each year.  

For the first time in its history, the Billabong Pro Junior Series will this year stop at the new locations of Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast and Coffs Harbour on the NSW Mid North Coast.  Long regarded as areas home to some best past and present surfers, the two new events are exciting additions to the series, which aims to expand its reach further into Australia’s surf-rich country locations over the coming years.  

ASP Men’s World Tour surfer and Coffs local, Shaun Cansdell, praises the newly established country contests: “It (the Coffs Harbour event) will benefit mid North Coast surfers the most as they will be surfing their own breaks and there will be no travel or accommodation costs involved,” he said.

With contests as far a field as Bells Beach and New Zealand’s iconic Raglan, the two East Coast stages will be welcome relief to many of Australia’s champions of tomorrow. Many undertake a significant amount of travel in their quest for a Pro Junior victory.

Cansdell is the first to admit the merits of an event close to home, but he also validates the necessity of the travel aspect: “The Junior Series definitely gave me recognition and exposure and propelled me onto the world stage. It’s in a class of its own, that's why a lot of overseas competitors come all the way here to compete,” he said.

The 2007 Billabong Pro Junior Series will see a shifting of the events at Newcastle and the Gold Coast to the new venues on the NSW North Coast and the Sunshine Coast. With the fourth stage being held in Wollongong and the final at Bells Beach, the competitions will be distributed evenly along Australia’s Eastern seaboard.  

The Sunshine Coast event, to be held at Maroochydore, will prove particularly interesting as five of the top ten 2006 Pro Junior men and women hail from the region, including defending men’s champion, Wade Goodall (Caloundra) and runner-up, Julian Wilson (Coolum).

“There are so many kids from Caloundra who are surfing amazingly at the moment” said Goodall.  “I’m going to get behind them and try to get them in that contest. “I definitely think the Sunshine Coast has a good chance of a second win, especially with the new contest up here,” he said. “It’s hard for some kids to get out of the Sunny Coast so it’s really good that this event is coming to them.”

2006 spelled Goodall’s final year on the under-20s junior circuit. This year will see the 20-year-old take his place among the ranks of the World Qualifying Series (WQS), aiming at advancing his professional surfing career. The absence of Goodall and other departing top juniors will leave a noticeable vacancy in the upper echelons of the junior circuit but one that will doubtlessly be swiftly filled.

“I think Julian Wilson has got a really good chance of winning it, the way he’s surfing,” predicts Goodall. “He’s surfing so good at the moment. It’ll definitely be either him or Laurie Towner”.

The ASP-rated series is the world’s only ‘professional’ junior circuit and is at the forefront of contests for surfers under 20 years of age.  The culmination of the series crowns the only professional world junior champions each year at North Narrabeen, for the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships.  

As a series, within the over-all series, the winner of the Billabong Pro Junior circuit will score a wildcard into the trials of the Billabong Pro at Teahupoo, Tahiti.  

2006 Overall Australasian Series Champions:
Wade Goodall (Sunshine Coast Australia)
Airini Mason (Gold Coast Australia)

2006 Billabong Pro Junior Series Champions
Dion Atkinson (Seaford, SA)
Airini Mason (Gold Coast Australia)

2007 Billabong Junior Series
$13,000 Billabong Pro Junior Sunshine Coast, February 6 to 11
$13,000 Billabong Pro Junior Coffs Harbour, February 14 to 18
$13,000 Billabong Pro Junior Raglan, March 29 to 31
$13,000 Billabong Pro Junior Wollongong, September 13 to 16
$23,000 Billabong Pro Junior Bells, September 26 to 30

www.billabong.com.au

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