Australian Junior Surfing Titles

Surfing Australia
Margaret River West Australia
1 - 7 December 2008

Perfect large surf at Margaret River as under 16's charge in near perfect conditions

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 2 December, 2008 : - - On a day when Queensland’s Stephanie Gilmore was again doing Australia proud by winning the ASP World Title in Hawaii for the second consecutive time, a score of upcoming future champions of the sport were letting us know that the future of Australia’s prominence in the sport is also in good shape as they took on seriously large perfect waves at the Australian Junior Surfing Titles at Margaret River in Western Australia.

With sets around 3m (10 feet) and well overhead for these youngsters, broken boards and big wipe outs were common place today. But there were also plenty of stellar performances laid out, particularly with the under 16 Boys charging the reef as they all vie for a prestigious Australian Junior surfing title.

Leading the charge today was young 15 year old Victorian surfer Harrison Mann. Hailing from Torquay, which gets more than it’s share of solid waves in any year, Harrison proclaimed today’s surf the biggest he had ever tackled which was surprising given he handled the conditions so well and posted the mornings top scoring ride of an 8.75 out of 10 and the days top scoring heat win.

“ That’s the biggest surf I’ve had and I’m actually really starting to enjoy it. There’s so much power and room to really do big moves on the waves that I’m loving it out there and I hope it stays this solid as we head into the finals this weekend!” said a clearly excited Mann after his comprehensive round one heat win of the under 16 Boys today.

Mann moves straight into the quarter finals and with his confidence and familiarity with the wave increasing by the day he’s certain to be one of the favorites to win here.

Others to impress in the perfect morning conditions were Gold Coast’s Sol Periera-Ryan, Nth Narrabeen’s Cooper Chapman, Central Coast surfer Dylan Cummings, Margaret River local Creed McTaggart and Tasmania’s Hamish Renwick – all showing a committed and skilled approach to what were some of the biggest conditions served up at an Australian Junior Title.

The waves remained excellent throughout the day and Australia’s top schools also competed in their second rounds of both the schools teams events and the MR (Mark Richards) shield which pairs up the top surfers who are still in school from each state to compete in a unique teams format. It’s early days in the schools divisions but already NSW, Qld, Victoria and Western Australian schools are posting strong results.

Cooper Chapman echoed most of todays winners attitude saying “ Bigger waves are definitely better for a contest like this, we love to surf well when it’s solid surf, it’s really what surfing is all about and while today’s waves weren’t the biggest that I’ve ever surfed they were probably the biggest I’ve competed in – It’s great and I hope it stays this size all week!”

With attitude like that, Australian surfing is certain to maintain it’s great world wide reputation and it’s worth remembering, it was only four years ago at this same event that Stephanie Gilmore was crowned with an Australian Junior Title – The surfers at this event will be hoping they can t move on to surfings biggest global stage in the years ahead.

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

Previous reports:
# 1 : Australian Junior Surfing Titles launch at Margaret River
# 2 : Coming soon
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon  

www.surfingaustralia.com

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Steve Robertson

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