Coffs Harbour has turned it on for day one of the Billabong Pro Junior Series at Macauleys Headland in Australia, churning out solid 2-2.5m waves. Long left-handers and rogue 2.5m clean up sets kept competitors in round one and two on their toes, all surfers vying for one of 32 positions in the top seeded round three.
Second round seeds dominated proceedings early with South Coaster Nick McMullen (Austinmer), John Cummings (Coolangatta) and Storm Hosking (Burleigh Heads) all winning their way to round three in the red singlet.
McMullen posted a 7.75 and a 3.75 to secure a solid heat win over NSW trio Joel Dawson, Nick Laidlaw and Kurt King. Cummings was equally impressive in the big surf, dominating the 20-minute-heat to secure victory over Ty Watson, Jason Blissett and local surfer Mitchell Keighran.
Burleigh Heads surfer Hosking made the most of the easterly swell to post a win over Kieren Lloyd (Kingscliff) and Cahill Bell-Warren (Vic) with Indonesian surfer Mustofa Jekson a no show. With five different nationalities represented at the prestigious $13,000 event, international surfers led the way on the first day of play, posting three of the top four heat scores of the morning.
Brazil’s Alejo Muniz top scored in the opening round with a combined total of 15.75 out of 20.00. Muniz finished a credible 13th at the Billabong Pro Junior Series on the Sunshine Coast last week. Kiwi surfer Richard Christie along with Frances Vincent Duvignac also ripped through their opening heats, posting 15.40 and 14.00 respectively. West Australia’s Shaun Howe (Kalbarri) was the only Australian surfer to post a top ranked winning score in round two, notching up 14.25.
Local surfers Heath Joske (Nambucca), Maddison Williams (Coffs Harbour), Billy Kean (Sawtell) and ASP Australasian Series leader Jayke Sharp (Coffs Harbour) will all begin their campaigns in the top seeded third round today.
The Billabong Pro Junior Series is in Coffs for the first time in the series history and will run through until with the Girls division is likely to get underway on Friday. It’s all good news for the swell forecast with a slowly dropping easterly stream of surf expected to persist right through the five days of competition from 14-18th February.
The Billabong Pro Junior Series is supported by Vodafone, Panasonic, UV Triplegard, Clearasil, Von Zipper, Kustom, Surfing NSW and the Coffs Harbour City Council.
2007 Billabong Junior Series
$13,000 Billabong Pro Junior Sunshine Coast, February 6 to 11
$13,000 Billabong Pro Junior Coffs Harbour, February 14 to 18
$13,000 Billabong Pro Junior Raglan, March 29 to 31
$13,000 Billabong Pro Junior Wollongong, September 13 to 16
$23,000 Billabong Pro Junior Bells, September 26 to 30
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