Surfest Motorola Junior

ASP Australasia Grade 1 Men's Junior Event
ASP Australasia Grade 1 Women's Junior Event
Merewether Beach NSW
27 - 30 March 2008

CULBURRA SURFER SHOWS THE WRIGHT WAY AT MOTOROLA PRO JUNIOR

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 27 March, 2008 : - - Newcastle's junior surfers tore through their heats today as action got underway at the 2008 Motorola Pro Junior at Newcastle's Merewether beach. The $10,000, 5-star event saw popular locals Jesse Adam and Jake Sylvester battle the less than idyllic, choppy conditions at their home beach to progress through to tomorrow's heats.

In the opening minutes of Adam's heat, he tore away from the pack in search of waves that were occasionally breaking further off shore. Adam managed to win the heat with a score of just 8.75 – which tells more about conditions on offer than it does about the promise shown by the young natural-footer.

Adam was disappointed with his performance. "I was pretty average, really bad actually," Adam said."You don't normally expect to get through on the back of fours and twos. But I guess any win's a good win – I just expected better conditions."

Local grommet pocket-rocket Jake Sylvester, 14, advanced through both this morning's round of 124 as well as this afternoon's round of 96 to secure his spot in Saturday's round of 48. Other locals to progress include Merewether's Craig Anderson and Duncan McNicol from Caves Beach.

Both of those surfers will join seven other locals tomorrow in the Maitland Toyota Trial for a wild card into the main event at Surfest–the 4-star Mark Richards Pro which gets underway next Monday, March 31. Those others to surf in the trial include Jesse Adam, Jackson Richards, Rhys Smith, Travis Lynch, Michael Spencer, Lincoln Robards and last year's Newcastle Pro Junior winner Drew McPherson.

The first heats of that trial will hit the water just after 12.30pm While low scores were the order of the day for most surfers, consummate performer Owen Wright (Culburra, NSW) showed why many rate him as one of Australia's best future surfing hopes.

Eighteen-year-old Wright trumped himself in heat 4 in the round of 96, racking up a whopping 9.5 to surpass that impressive score just minutes later with the contest's only perfect score to date - to post a massive 19.5 out of a possible 20. "I went pretty good out there...I got some waves that linked all the way to the shore...fun junky peaks with little wafting sections allowed some good snaps," Wright said.

The remaining 12 heats in this round will get underway tomorrow at 7.30am with Merewether locals Jackson Richards, Wes Bainbridge and Ryan Callinan to continue the charge with Nords Wharf duo Blair McPherson and Sam Lendrum as well as Fingal Bay's Mitch Noonan still in the hunt.

The girls round of 34 will hit the water at just after 11.30am tomorrow and will make it to the round of 16 which is set down for Saturday shortly after 1.30pm.

Previous reports:
# 1 : Phone giant presents Motorola Junior as part of Surfest
# 2 : Newcastle surfers battle for Mark Richards Pro wildcard
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon  

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www.surfingaustralia.com

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Steve Robertson

Junior Contests - Surfersvillage