Outstanding Queensland surfer Julian Wilson should not have even been surfing his round one heat at Bells Beach yesterday on the opening day of the Kustom – Jetty Surf Pro Junior at Torquay in Fairhaven, Victoria.

Normally seeded in either position 1 or 2 at this event, Wilson failed to join ASP Australasia and therefore, as a non-financial member for the beginning of the 2007 season, he was stripped of seeding rights into this event which forces him to compete from round one.

“I wasn’t happy about it and didn’t receive any reminder notices or anything but now I’m here it’s all good because the waves are good at Bells and surfing the early rounds gives me a chance to familiarize myself with the surf and loosen up a bit! These waves are fun compared to what we’ve surfed the past week in Sydney and I’m looking forward to a good week and hopefully a strong start to the Pro Junior season!”

Wilson looked at his aggressive best yesterday, easily defeating Reunion Island surfer Adrian Toyon and his unseeding could potentially work in his favour as he surfs through rounds one yesterday and two today before hopefully joining the top seeds in round three on Wednesday or Thursday.

“My goal this season is to win the series for certain. I was right up there last year and this season I want to win that title so this event is important to me. I’ll do a few Open World Qualifying Series events and I’ll also travel and free surf quite a bit but competitively the Series is my goal,” he said.

As an Eight Star Pro Junior event, The Kustom – Jetty Surf is the biggest Pro Junior domestic event in the world and the points at this event are greater than all others this season and therefore critically significant to the season ratings.

International surfers also dominated the opening rounds of both the Junior Men’s and Junior Women’s today. Marcos Sansegundo (Spain), Pierre Laborde (France) and Sebastian Esitenne (France ) all easily progressed through the Men’s round one while in the Women’s French surfers Alize Arnaud and current world under 18 champion Pauline Ado easily won through and were the standouts.

Most of the internationals at this event last week surfed the ASP World Junior Championships in Sydney.

Following a week of almost flat conditions on the Surfcoast, yesterday’s rise in swell came right on time and with a capacity field of around 300 surfers here for this event, the outlook for surf all week is quite strong so competitors can look forward to some good waves all week.

Full Results available at www.surfingaustralia.com and www.jettysurf.com.au