Blake Wilson : photo Brent Mail

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

Heats & Results

Sunshine Coast Surfers Dominate Day Two Of the Wild Surf Co/Billabong Pro-Teen Series at Newcastle.

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 30 March, 2006 : - - Australia’s top seeded junior surfers have hit the water with great success on day two of the Wild Surf Co/Billabong Pro-Teen Series at Newcastle Beach.  Despite a significant drop in swell overnight, clean and consistent 1m right hand reforms offered plenty of high scoring sections for the talented round of 96 to showcase their skill. 

Maroochydore’s Mitch Coleborn knows that a win at Newcastle will put him in perfect standing to achieve his goal of winning the ASP Australasian Junior Series for 2006.  One of three Sunshine Coast surfers in the ASP top 10, Coleborn will be looking to end the run of equal third finishes he has posted in the past three Billabong Pro-Teen series events in order to amass the 200 points required to topple ratings leader Laurie Towner (Angourie).  The 20-year-old was off to a good start at Newcastle today, moving through to the fourth round behind breakthrough grommet Owen Wright (Culburra).   

“I definitely need to win one if there is any hope of winning the overall series, so hopefully I can do it here,” said Coleborn.  “It seems that all year I have been up the top near the leader and then I get overtaken by someone below me.  All I need to do is get through that semi final, and I just can’t seem to do it, so it’s pretty frustrating.”

Coleborn will have to fend off Coolum’s Julian Wilson and Central Coast surfer Matt Wilkinson, who will both be bouncing back from shock first round loss results in New Zealand. “I saw Julian surfing yesterday, and he was surfing really well, I haven’t seen Wilko yet (Matt Wilkinson) but those guys have both got a couple of bad results to drop, so they are going to be really tough.” 

Sunshine Coast surfers dominated the opening heats of the top seeded round today with Dean Iezzi (Sunshine Beach), Shaun Stevic (Noosa), Blake Wilson and Julian Wilson all victorious in consecutive heats.   

Gold Coast surfers also fared well on the second day of competition at the Wild Surf Co/Billabong Pro-Teen Series.  While they are still to surf in the main seeded third round, Palm Beach surfers Joel Nantes and Brendan Leckie both won their respective second round heats.  Leckie, who finished runner up in consecutive events earlier this year will face a tough ask in his next round, facing ASP Australasian Junior Series leader Towner, fellow Gold Coaster Jarrad Bell (Elanora)and local hopeful Jackson Brent (Merewether).  Nantes will surf against big Noosa surfer Dean Brady, Jan Juc’s Tim Stevenson and Copacabana’s Dane Atchison when action resumes tomorrow morning. 

Sam Page : photo Brent Mail

16-year-old Heath Joske (Nambucca Heads) moved through to the fourth round today behind Wilson (Julian) in a close heat.  The natural footer, who revels in any surf with a little bit of power, adapted his low centre of gravity style to the small right hander’s at Newcastle today, scoring a solid 7.0 on his way to a combined total of 10.95.  Joske, who has had a proverbial shocker on the junior series lately, welcomed the return to form, having already progressed through three heats at this event. 

“It was pretty fun at the start of the heat when I got my first wave,” said Joske.  “I got off to a great start and I thought I was safe, but I wasn’t.  Julian came back at me with those two big scores and you have to expect it from him, he is probably one of the best surfers on the junior series.” 

“Last year I made the round of 48 here at Newcastle,” said Joske.  “I haven’t even got past the round of 96 this year, and I really want to do well here.  I put my entry in late and had to surf from round one which wasn’t the best of starts, but I’m through to fourth round now so hopefully I can keep it going.” 

Joske will now surf against Dean McColl (North Cromer), Ellis Ericson (Byron Bay) and Richard Christie (NZ). 

Fellow Coff’s Coast surfer Madison Williams also won his opening heat of competition today over McColl, Tweed surfer Dale Richards (Coolangatta) and West Australian Courtney Brown.   

Merewether twins Rhys and Drew Benton shared divided fortunes today with Drew being eliminated from the competition while in the next heat, brother Rhys edged out West Australian Daniel Waddell by less than a point to ensure his progress to the next round.   

Benton survived a tight tussle coming from behind in the dying stages to progress with a win.  He will now move through to tomorrows top seeded round where he will face Stephen Walsh (Lennox Head), Wade Rixon (Lake Munmorah) and Teal Vanner (Kangaroo Island). 

“It was pretty hard, the tide was really high but I got a couple,” said Benton.  “I thought it was over but one popped up right at the end and I was lucky to get the score.  It’s my local break so it’s good to have a comp back at home.  There are heaps of local grommets in the event here this year, it’s great for them to build up the experience.” 

It was also good news for Merewether’s Jesse Adams, who managed to leapfrog from third to first with less than a minute remaining in his heat this afternoon.  The good news for the Merewether juniors stopped there. Mitch Resevsky was bundled out in the morning’s second heat, while the following heat saw Jackson Richards also exit the event.  

The event’s youngest competitor, 13-year-old Ryan Callinan, also from Merewether, was not able to make further use of the event wildcard that had seen the 44 kilogram Year 8 student from St Pius College enter the round of 96.  

Fellow Merewether board club member Wes Bainbridge was also eliminated from the competition following an interference call on eventual heat winner Davey Cathels from Narrabeen. But Bainbridge was not alone in feeling the judge’s wrath. Hassling for position saw two other interference calls on Dale Lovelock from the Sunshine Coast and Leckie from the Gold Coast. Despite the wrath of the judges, both Queenslanders still managed to win their heats and will surf again tomorrow. 

Other Newcastle locals still in contention besides Adams include Catherine Hill Bay’s Drew McPherson and top seed Craig Anderson from Merewether who will hit the water for the first time tomorrow at around 11am.

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 : Wild Surf Co / Billabong Pro-Teen kicks-off with a bang.
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon  

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Junior Contests - Surfersvillage