Rip Curl New Zealand Junior Surfing Team members Airini Mason (Tugun, Qld) and Paco Divers (Sandy Bay) have continued their rich vein of form moving through to the last four surfers in the qualifying rounds of the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championships.  The two surfers are now one heat away from making the grand final of the under 18 girls and boys divisions respectively and a bid to take out a world title.

The two surfers have been backed up by Johnny Hicks (Gis) who remains alive in the under 16 boys and also Eli Jacobs (Qld) who is through to the seventh repercharge round.  Hicks and Jacobs will have to surf another three and four times respectively to make it to the grand finals.

The fortunes of Mason, Divers, Hicks and Jacobs were balanced out by the elimination of the other seven Rip Curl New Zealand Junior Surfing Team members who were eliminated on the sixth day of surfing at the event.  Included in the eliminations were 2007 finalists Matt Hewitt (Mnt) and Paige Hareb (Tara) who could not advance past the fifth round of the repercharge heats.

Divers progressed through two exhilarating rounds of the under 18 boys.  First he posted a second placing behind Granger Larson (Haw).  Then in the three man qualifying semifinals he won his heat scoring 14.5 beating Nat Young (USA) and Alejo Muniz (Bra).

Mason followed suit placing second in her first heat behind Australian whiz kid Laura Enever but then bounced back for a huge 15.33 point win in her three person semi to beat Courtney Conlogue (USA) and Coco Ho (Haw).

Jacobs lost his first encounter of the day but bounced back in the qualifying rounds with a second place to move through to the last eleven surfers in the event.  Jacobs will now face Shaun Joubert (Zaf) and Dillon Perillo (USA).  Hicks progressed through is first heat of the day only to fall in his second, beaten by the highly touted Tahitian Tamaroa McComb and local Frenchman Ian Fontaine.  Hicks now waits on surfers to progress through the repercharge rounds before he knows who is next challenge will be.

Earlier in the day the tough competition inflicted several defeats on the team.  Alex Dive (Mnt) made it through several heats to round six where he was pushed into third in the last two minutes by Thomas Woods (Aus).  That ended the run of Dive who placed an excellent 13^th at his first ever world junior championships.  His fellow under 16 boys surfers suffered the same defeats.  Damien Norman (NSW) fell in the round prior to Dive placing 19^th overall after progressing through two rounds.  Whangamata’s Blake Myers moved through one round early in the day but then came up short in round 4 in a low scoring battle that could have easily gone his way had he found the waves.  Myers finished in 25^th place.

Matt Hewitt (Mnt) progressed through one round in the under 18 boys before being eliminated by 0.10 in his heat.  Hewitt posted the highest single wave score of the heat – an excellent 8.83 point ride but with a back up wave of 2.17 on his only other wave he fell short of the mark to finish 19^th overall.  Ryan Hawker (Piha) left his run late in his fourth round heat but posted an 11.0 point heat total to briefly nudge into second place before being pushed back to third, finishing the event in 25^th place.

Paige Hareb (Tara) had hoped to make the long road all the way to the finals and better her fourth placing she achieved in 2007.  However her run came to a holt in round 5 when she placed third by less than 1.0 point to finish 19^th.  Alexis Poulter (Rag) was eliminated in her first heat of the day when she caught two waves in her heat – one being a 7.0 point ride.  However Poulter fell victim to the same problem as many of the other team members, being unable to find a good second scoring ride in the solid 1.5m waves that offered up great waves as well as many closeouts.    

The 2008 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championships takes place from the 24^th of May through until the 1^st of April.  Live action can be viewed via the following website: http://www.isaworldchamp.com/. Action commences at approximately 6.00pm (NZ time) each night.

Media releases on the teams performance will be distributed daily throughout the event.  For further information regarding the Rip Curl New Zealand Junior Surfing Team, please contact Ben Kennings at Surfing New Zealand 07 8250018, 0212278732 or email benkennings@surfingnz.co.nz.

All surfers heats have been logged and can be viewed on http://www.isaworldchamp.com/ by clicking on ‘heats on demand’.

Support faxes can be received by the team in France through the following fax number - 0033 825 380 370.

The 2008 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships is an annual event having been held since 2003.  New Zealand has competed at the event since its inception as well as competing at the World Grommet Titles as it was formerly known since 1989.  New Zealand has been one of the top nations at each event with Jay Quinn (Gis) securing New Zealand’s first World Championship in the Under 18 Men’s division in 2001.  New Zealand also placed fourth in 2007 – it’s highest placing since 2001.  The 2007 team were aided by finals berths for Matt Hewitt who placed third in the under 16 boys and Paige Hareb who placed fourth in the under 18 girls.  28 countries are competing at the event in 2008.

The tour would not be possible without the support of Rip Curl, New Zealand Community Trust and Surfing New Zealand.

Surfing New Zealand are proudly partnered by

Corona

Hyundai

SPARC

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Ends