The first winter swell of the season really made an impression on Cronulla beaches on the weekend as the entire east coast was bathed in big, clean waves.
It caused havoc at the NSW junior surfing titles at Maroubra where, due to the second day of hazardous conditions, the competition shifted south to Malabar where competitors were greeted by two-foot lefts.
Cronulla grommets Jarvis Earle and Kalani Van de Polder made Lennox Head’s Jai Glinderman work hard but couldn't stop the trophy heading north as Jai won the under-14s boys division.
The powerful natural-footer surfed the punchy left-handers hard, nailing a number of backside snaps to post a 15.5 heat total and take the final ahead of fellow north coast native Touma Cameron with Cronulla’s Jarvis third and Kalani fourth.
All finalists have qualified for the upcoming Surf Dive’N’Ski Australian junior titles which take place in Culburra on the NSW south coast in November and December.
The final day of the 2017 Woolworths NSW junior surfing titles presented by Ocean and Earth saw an action packed day of surfing as four new NSW champions were crowned with Cronulla’s Jay Brown just missing out on going back to back.
After trying to claim a NSW title for the better part of a decade, Max McGuigan (Maroubra) achieved his goal claiming the under-18s boys division ahead of the current under-16s champion and in-form Jay.
After spending half the final chasing Jay’s first high-scoring waves, McGuigan exploded in the later stages of the heat posting two good scores to record an impressive 15.34 two-wave heat total and take top spot and earn a wildcard into the 2018 Australian Open of Surfing.
This was the third year the Grommet state titles and the junior state titles have split into two different events, with the amendment designed to cater for the growing numbers from younger divisions.
Meanwhile, with five events remaining Connor O’Leary is 10th on the World Surf League Championship Tour ratings after another 13th place at a pumping Jeffreys Bay.
Filipe Toledo won the Corona Open J-Bay after besting 2017 CT Rookie Frederico Morais in the Final. Stop No. 6 of 11 on the 2017 Championship Tour was graced with flawless conditions, resulting in barrier-breaking performances by the world’s best surfers, eight perfect 10-point rides and no shortage of drama.
Sitting on 20,200 points, O’Leary hasn't had a first round loss and looks set to survive his rookie year with a second and fifth place so far.
After last weekends super swell where it was reef break only surfing,Cronulla surfers are set for a good week ahead with the swell kicking again yesterday.
Swellnet predicts some good waves ahead over the coming days.Tuesdays little pulse will settle down and winds will freshen from the W/NW into Wednesday and this will slowly ease from a very early 3-4 ft+ across south facing beaches down to 2-3ft throughout the day. Winds will veer more W/SW but conditions should remain clean.
A short range Southerly swell will kick in for Thursday which will supply plenty of small but long period swell right through into the weekend, somewhere in the 3ft+ range both Thursday and Friday.
On the weekend Saturday looks to be your best bet with early 2-3ft sets at south facing beaches, easing throughout the day,smaller on Sunday.
The Tweed Coast region shapes as the perfect venue for the 2017 Australian Surf Festival when action gets underway this weekend on July 29th.
National titles will be decided in Open Surf Masters, Longboard, Logger and Bodyboard divisions.
On the World tour the next stop on the 2017 Men’s WSL CT will be the Billabong Pro Tahiti from August 11 - 22, 2017. The women will next compete at the Vans US Open of Surfing, which opens July 31 and runs through August 6, 2017.
This year’s Vans surfing lineup will include the sixth stop on the Women’s World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour (CT), in addition to the Men’s Qualifying Series (QS) 10,000 event and a combined WSL Pro Junior event.
Plenty on so stay tuned.
