Junior surfing titles still making waves

The last time Surfing Suth­erland Shire ran the Junior NSW eliminations was 2017 and Jay Brown was the U18 winner. 

Since then, the elimina­tions were taken over by Surfing NSW and held at Ma­roubra with Southern Syd­ney clubs surfing together for a NSW titles starting spot. 

This year it was back home with Surfing Sutherland Shire taking over its duty to promote its junior surfers running its own titles. 

For over 30 years the regional titles was the big­gest event on the Cronulla competition scene, and it was a role call of the best surfers, Denny Childs in 1970, Roach, Banks, Mar­shall, Naylor, Tyte, Pringle and King before current hot shots O’Leary, Campbell and Earle earn’t the title through ratings points. 

This year the juniors start­ed the rebirth with over 50 surfers from all the Bate Bay clubs competing. 

Winners were crowned in boys and girls Ul2,14,16 and 18’s age groups at Elouera Beach, which guarantees a seeding into the NSW titles. 

The Ul2’s final kicked off with favourite Ollie Croft be­ing blindsided by Elouera’s Max Hawkins when he caught an 8 point ride. Zara Hyland picked up a win in the 12 girls before Jax Goode dominated the Ul4 boys . 

The Ul6 boys showed the strength of Cronulla Surfing with Cronulla’s Australian champ Kash Brown flexing his muscles. Clubmate Grace Gosby won the girls going vertical in the shorebreak with Elouera’s Pippi Simpson using her local knowledge in the U18 girls. 

The U18 boys was all Cro­nulla’s Zai Browns when he scored a 9 for his fourth wave and chaired up the beach. 

John Veage 4/5/22