Kustom Jetty Surf Pro Junior 2008

ASP Australasia Pro Junior Series 2008
Bells Beach, Surfcoast, Victoria
8 - 14 January 2008 

Live Coverage  |  Results/Photos/Videos etc

Number One Seed Julian Wilson Eliminated at the Kustom Jetty Surf Pro Junior

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 10 January, 2008 : - -  In searing 40 degree plus conditions, round three of the Junior Men’s and rounds one and two of the Junior Women’s of the Kustom Jetty Surf  Pro Junior were completed at Jan Juc Beach today.

With a dropping 0.5m swell conditions were tricky and competitive strategy was vital as the best of Australasia and many of the world’s top 20 year and under surfers fought through the mid stage rounds of what is the biggest Pro Junior event on the 2008 season. The events biggest upset occurred early with number one seed and hot favourite Julian Wilson from the Sunshine Coast bundled out of the contest in the opening heat of the day.

Wilson struggled in the heat while his opponents found the better waves and racked up a series of strong scores.  Wilson only caught three waves scoring a 3.75 a 0.5 and a 4.0 which left him in last place behind an aggressive and in form Ellis Ericson (Byron Bay) who’s top scoring 7 point ride mid heat gave him the win over young talented Sydney surfer Davey Cathels.

Happy with his form Ericson said “I’ve wanted to beat him for a while and it’s good to actually get a win over him – This year on the Pro Junior Circuit is way more serious for me personally - previous years I’ve been really too young to seriously take on these guys but this year it’s time for me to step up and to take out that heat in particular is the sort of result I’m looking for and satisfied with.”

Wilson wasn’t the only high seed to go down today – Madison Williams (Coff’s Harbor), Heath Joske (Scott’s Head), Lincoln Taylor (Nth Stradbroke) and Blake Ainsworth (Coolangatta) were all surprise eliminations. Local Surfcoast surfers were bundled out in both the Men’s and Women’s divisions and only Ocean Grove’s Josh Johnson-Baxter survived by placing 2nd in his round 3 heat to progress to round four.

International surfers were again super strong across both divisions – Lee- Ann Curran (France), Paige Hareb (NZ) and Alize Arnaud (France) all posted big scoring heat wins in their round two Women’s divisions while in the Men’s Tamaroa McComb (Tahiti), Granger Larson (Hawaii) and Maxime Huscenot (France) were all strong scoring heat winners.

Sunshine Coast surfer Chris Friend (Maroochydore) posted the days top scoring ride with an excellent 8 which saw him take a good win and he later said “Coming from the Sunshine Coast I surf waves like this all the time – you have to have boards that can cope with the small waves – With Julian being eliminated I think we all sort of get a little more confident that we can win here – he’s one of the hardest to beat so it’s good he’s out!”

Hot conditions and small waves are likely again tomorrow and organizers will assess conditions at Jan Juc early.

Previous reports:
# 1 : Kustom Jetty Surf Pro 2008 to ring in ASP Jr. new year
# 2 : Bells Beach fires for Kustom Jetty Surf Pro Junior day #1
# 3 : Julian Wilson on tear at the Kustom Jetty Surf Pro Junior
# 4 : Coming soon  

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Steve Robertson

ASP Jr Contests - Surfersvillage