The top North American junior professional surfers are set to compete at the Pro Junior National Championships being held at the 2006 O’Neill Coldwater Classic at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, Calif. The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) North America Grade 2 Oakley Pro Junior will take place October 20-22nd, 2006.
Forty-eight top American and International surfers under the age of 20 will compete for the $10,000 prize purse and one final chance to earn critical points toward their end-of-year ratings. Only the top four pro junior competitors will move on to the 2007 Billabong ASP World Junior Championships.
With Nick Rozsa’s (Oxnard, CA) third place finish at the last Oakley Pro Junior contest in Newport Beach, he gained ground on Eric Geiselman (New Smyrna Beach FL), the current ASP North America Pro Junior leader.
Filling out the rest of the Oakley Pro Junior field are Dylan Graves (Puerto Rico), Adam Wickwire (Satellite Beach, FL), Sterling Spencer (Gulfbreeze, FL) and Alex Gray (Palos Verdes, CA) all sitting in the top six of the current Pro Junior ratings. The ASP also grants a World Junior Championship entry to the highest rated Pro Junior surfer on the World Qualifying Series (WQS) tour.
Gray is currently rated 43 on the WQS tour and in position to receive automatic entry to the championships, even if he doesn’t finish within the top four Pro Junior rankings.
In addition to the top six Pro Junior surfers, look for the local wildcard Nat Young (Santa Cruz, CA), recent Newport Beach Oakley Pro Jr. winner Killian Garland (Orcutt, CA) and Hawaiian phenom Granger Larson (Maui, HAW) to stir up the competition in Santa Cruz.
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