Australian Junior Surfing Titles

Surfing Australia
Margaret River West Australia
1 - 7 December 2008

Thumping waves at Margaret River exite Australia's best young surfers as the battle for Australian Titles begins

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 30 November, 2008 : - - Day one of this years Australian Junior Surfing Titles saw sets up to 3m (10 feet) pounding the famous south west surf coastline of Western Australia and Australia’s top junior surfers were put to the test with many reveling in the power at the high performance wave of Surfers Point Margaret River.

Felicity Palmeteer (17years, Hillaries Beach /Perth/WA) lead the charge with an outstanding opening heat win that saw her take on some of the biggest waves of the morning to dominate with a win that included the days highest scoring ride of an 8.5 out of a possible 10. “Even though I live in Perth I surf down here all the time and I love this wave” said a pleased Palmeteer after her win today.

“It’s really big and quite scarey today when the larger sets come through and I was always worried about getting cleaned up by a big set but fortunately I made all my take offs and it worked for me – it’s a great start but with the finals not until the weekend there’s a long way to go.”

One surfer who really felt the power of Margaret River today was 17 year old Gold Cast surfer James Woods who copped a severe thrashing over the appropriately named “Surgeon’s Table”, a shallow reef section of the break that ripped his rash vest from his body during an extended hold down.

“I’ve been surfing 1 to 2ft waves on the Gold Coast for the past three months so it’s a serious change to get out amongst some real waves today” Woods exclaimed after his heat.

“That wave that dragged me over the reef was probably close to 10 feet and mid way through the tumbling my rash vest was ripped up over my head and sort of had me all tied up – I had no choice but to keep ripping it up and free myself of the vest so I could swim, see and breath when I finally came up and that’s the last I saw of it !”

Regardless of the wipe out, Woods showed he’s a serious contender here by easily winning his heat on a two wave tally of 12.90 out of a possible 20 with 2nd placed surfer in his heat, Mitch Baker for Victoria, well behind on 7.5 .

NSW surfers overall were probably the most dominant today lead by under 18 Boys number one seed Dean Bowen (Gerroa/Sth Coast NSW).  Bowen is a renown big wave charger having already built a reputation in some of the worlds gnarliest waves like Teahupoo in Tahiti and felt very comfortable in today’s waves.

“I love it here, bring it on as big as it can because I like the wave heaps – I need some power and space on a wave to perform and Margaret River gives me both.” Other standouts included fellow NSW surfers Ryan Callinan, Kirby Wright and Jordi Watson.

Waves are expected to remain big and perfect for at least the next two days of competition and with under 16 Boys set to take on the reef tomorrow morning we are sure to be in for some exciting and dynamic duels in waves that will most likely be bigger than anything these talented youngsters have ever faced before!

Winners across the Boys and Girls 18 division and Boys 16 division will become automatic selections for the Australian Junior Team which will compete in Ecuador next March at the ISA World Junior Titles.

Finals will run this coming weekend. This event is possible due to the support of Surfing Australia, Surfing Western Australia, Australian Schools Surfing Associations, Coastalwatch, Dept Sport & Recreation - WA, Quiksilver, Australian Sports Commission, SunSmart, Shire of Augusta Margaret River, Australia’s Surfing Life and Water Corporation - WA

www.surfingaustralia.com

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Steve Robertson

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