The 2018 Australian Junior Surfing Titles were held last week at Waitpinga Beach in South Australia with WA’s best young riders representing their state in all age divisions.
The raw surf exposed SA’s coastline which provided plenty of different wave locations over the course of the contest, and some incredible skills were put on show from the surfing grommets.
A long, lefthander provided perfect conditions for the riders as they battled it out for bragging rights.
Yallingup’s own Otis North put in a stellar performance in foreign territory making his way to the grand final in the Under 14 Boys’ division.
The natural footer carved his way to through the qualifying rounds and ripped into the fun one metre left handers.
He then competed strongly in the tight final with only 1.8 points separating second to fourth and North placed fourth respectively.
The Yallingup surfer was one of two WA riders to make the finals and earned valuable knowledge along the way.
Margaret River’s Zali Hewson was the other WA rider to make a final and she made the most of the opportunity.
The talented surfer found form among the peeling lefts and was on a mission to bring it home for WA.
After making the Under 14 girls final she proceeded to amass a huge total of 18.1 points out of 20 with only 0.05 separating first from second with Ellie Harrison from Victoria taking first place with Hewson a very close second.
Past winners of the Australian Junior Titles include World Champions Steph Gilmore, Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Mark Richards, Tom Carroll and Damian Hardman. To make the finals in this year’s event is a legitimate stepping stone to bigger tour events in the future.
Under 14 Boys’ Final
1 Hugh Vaughan NSW 14.75
2 Dembe Ryan NSW 11.80
3 Dane Henry NSW 11.55
4 Otis North WA 10.00
Under 14 Girls’ Final
1 Ellie Harrison VIC 18.15
2 Zali Hewson WA 18.10
3 Oceanna Rogers NSW 11.90
4 Rosie Smart NSW 11.40
Forecast:
Pumping surf this week with clean offshore waves on Thursday with E winds and a fun 1.8m swell. Friday starts off small but a large groundswell will rise during the afternoon and the winds will be from the SE direction.
The large 3m swell hangs around for Saturday with cross shore SSE winds expected and then it slightly drops on Sunday to 2.4m with more SE winds.
Hotspot:
Inji carpark on Saturday.
