Thomas Stubbs : photo courtesy Surfest.com

ASP Pro Junior Event
Newcastle Beach, Newcastle NSW
29 March - 2 April 2006

Wild Surf Co/Billabong Pro-Teen Series Commences With a Bang at Newcastle

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 29 March, 2006 : - - Festivities for the Vodafone Surfest presented by Billabong got off to an explosive start at Newcastle Beach today, as the best junior surfers in Australia made the most of the remnants of the solid swell that has been pounding the east coast on day one of the Wild Surf Co/Billabong Pro-Teen Series.  

The ferocity of yesterdays 3-4m swell interestingly washed ashore a RAAF Marine Marker to Newcastle Beach at 6pm yesterday which was secured over night before being exploded by the Army Bomb Squad on the beach this morning.  Competitors in the opening two rounds of the junior men’s also kicked the morning off with a bang in excellent 4-5ft (1.5-2m) predominant left hand waves.

After finishing runner up to ASP Australasian Junior series leader Laurie Towner in New Zealand two weeks ago, Culburra’s Owen Wright once again proved why he is currently rated third, blasting his way through the opening round with the days highest heat score.  The lanky 16-year-old had the heat stitched up within the first 10-minutes, scoring a 9.35 and an 8.00 on two linking lefts that wound all the way through to the Newcastle sand.   Enjoying the solid size on offer today, Wright admitted it was tough to leave his home town after one of the best swells in years.

“This swell has been sick, some big barrels and a lot of lefts around home,” said Wright.  “Some of the guys who were meant to come up with me stayed for another day just to make the most of it.  If we get bad waves here it won’t help having surfed such pumping waves lately, but it was good today so it helped a lot.” 

After progressing from the grommet ranks this year, Wright has made a huge impact on the junior series, despite still not being seeded through to the main round, meaning he usually surfs on the first day of competition.  He currently sits 888 points away from the ratings helm with three events remaining.   

“It’s hard to keep it going all the way through,” said Wright.  “When you get to the round of 24 you get a bit tired.  Every heat is tough and I never take it like I’m going to go well because everyone in these events surfs so well.  I’m going good on the series so I might start setting some goals, see if I can win it.” 

Fellow south coaster Sam Wrench (Ulladulla) posted the day’s highest single wave score of a 9.50, winning his opening heat over Gus McGregor (Maroubra). Wrench performed four critical under the lip re-entries on his backhand, before emerging from the whitewater after a heavy close-out floater to the hoots of the strong local crowd.  He then backed up his top scoring ride with a 6.10 to progress easily into the third round. 

Gold Coast surfer Brent Dorrington (Coolangatta) had to start his campaign two days before schedule this morning due to a late entry.  While the rest of his seeded opponents took the day to relax, the talented 19-year-old fought through his opening heat to make the second round before being unceremoniously eliminated by Tim Taplin (East Lynne) and Brett Burcher (Ulladulla).  It was a bad day in Newcastle for the Gold Coasters with Adam Bennetts (Main Beach) and John Cummings (Coolangatta) also knocked out of the event. 

Sunshine Coast surfers will be strongly represented this week as Mitch Coleborn (Maroochydore), Julian Wilson (Coolum) and Wade Goodall (Caloundra) strive to climb the ASP ratings.  Alexandra Headlands surfer Chris Friend was victorious in his opening heat of competition this morning, as was Thomas Stubbs (Buderim).

Local surfers not to progress through today's first two rounds include Maryville's Dale German, Duncan McNichol (Caves Beach) and Mitch Noonan (Fingal Bay) while Merewether duo Jackson Richards and Mitch Resevsky both progressed through to the next round. 

Tomorrow will see Merewether again swelling the ranks of local representation when Wes Bainbridge, Jesse Adams, along with twins Drew and Rhys Benton, hit the water in the remaining heats of the round of 144. 

The Wild Surf Co/Billabong Pro-Teen Series is the first major event in the 13 day surf celebration of the Vodafone Surfest presented by Billabong in Newcastle.  The four star rated World Qualifying event will begin next Monday and feature a host of the worlds best including seven times world surfing champion Kelly Slater.   All the action from the WQS can be viewed LIVE on www.surfest.com

www.surfest.com
www.billabong.com.au  

The Wild Surf Co/Billabong Pro-Teen Series event is supported by Panasonic, Vodafone, Coca-Cola, UV Triplegard, Clearasil, Kustom, Von Zipper, Tracks and Palmers Surf.   

Billabong Pro Teen Series Dates and Locations 

Feb 7-12                           Billabong Pro-Teen Series Gold Coast
Feb 15-19                         Billabong Pro-Teen Series Wollongong
Mar 16-19                         Billabong Pro-Teen Series Raglan NZ
Mar 29-Apr 2                    Wild Surf Co/Billabong Pro-Teen Series Newcastle
Sep 27-Oct 1                    Billabong Pro-teen Bells Beach

Previous reports:
# 1 : Wild Surf Co / Billabong Pro-Teen kicks off tommorow..
# 2 : Coming soon
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon  

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Paul Scott
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Simon Barratt - Billabong
sbarratt@billabong.com.au 

Mandy McKinnon
mandy.mckinnon@bigpond.com.au 

Junior Contests - Surfersvillage