DE LA Salle Cronulla student Shane Campbell, 16, has emerged as a young surfer to watch for the future. And not just because of his unusual heritage.
Campbell, who surfed in his maiden state title at Cronulla on the weekend, made it through against the state's best male surfers in the early heats of the NSW Open at North Cronulla and on to finals day on Sunday.
That was after he recently made round 16 of the Australian Open at Manly.
"I knew a lot of tough names were going in it and I had to take it heat by heat; the older guys I've never surfed against were ripping," said Campbell, who was born in Canada (his father Brad is Canadian and his mother Renata is Australian-Italian) and came to Cronulla as a youngster.
"It was great to have all the locals cheering me on. I was lucky with the best conditions of the day — if you found the right ones you got the good scores."
While he couldn't progress further, Campbell's big aim is to make the quarter finals of the Pro Junior contests during the next three seasons.
The rest of the local contingent made a huge impression on the first day, including Rory Jenkins, Connor O'Leary, Joey Sear, Dylan Hayllar, Dane Durbin and Joel Etherington, but it was Ty Watson (Currarong) who eventually prevailed in Sunday's final. Rachel Campbell (Stanwell Park) made the final of the women's event, finishing fourth to winner Codie Klein (Kingscliff).
