SUTHERLAND Shire competitor surfers took the honours in the Summer Surf Series at Bar Beach at Newcastle on Sunday.
In the under-18 girls' final, Paris Whittaker of Caringbah managed to muster some last-minute heroics to sneak past Kirra-Belle Olsson of Copacabana who held down the lead for the first 19 minutes of the heat.
Whittaker linked together a chain of solid backhand cracks to lock in a 7.67 wave score (out of a possible 10 points), which gave her the edge over Olsson and take victory.
The under-18 boys' final produced some of the most exciting surfing of the entire event with all finalists locking in solid scores.
However, when the final hooter sounded it was Jared Hickel of Cronulla who managed to bag his second Subway Summer Surf Series title from as many events.
Despite local surfer Jackson Baker (Merewether, NSW) posting a 9.17 wave score and Jackson Giles (Matraville, NSW) a near-perfect 9.67, Hickel was able to keep his opposition at arm's length with a 16.40 heat total.
Hickel applied his dynamite repertoire with Bar Beach's punchy left-handers to perform a chain of critical rail turns and snaps to grab the win.
As reward for their victory, Whittaker and Hickel have been invited to attend a three-day Subway Surf Camp at the Hurley Surfing Australia High Performance Centre at Casuarina.
Conducted by Australia's leading surf coaches, it aims to provide assistance and training to help with the transition from young surfer to professional athlete at a crucial point in the development of Australia's leading junior surfers, for whom there is a competition void.
Proudly supported by Billabong, the 13-event series will be held around Australia, including Cronulla, this summer, showcasing the country's best male and female surfers in the under-16 and 18 age divisions.
Each event is expected to attract as many as 100 surfers vying for the top honour.
It represents an important link in the pathway to the podium developed by Surfing Australia, with surfers now able to progress from the Vegemite SurfGroms program to the Wahu Surfer Groms Comps, into the Subway Summer Surf Series, followed by the Original Source Australian Boardriders' Battle.
Ambassadors for the Subway Summer Surf Series are ASP World Tour competitor and 2012 World Champion Joel Parkinson, and leading ASP World Tour female competitor Laura Enever.
