Connor O'Leary might not have made the final at the Gotcha Ichinomiya Chiba Open QS 6,000 in Japan but by making the quarters he earned enough points to get him back on track in the WQS world rankings.
Fellow former Championship Tour surfer Nat Young was victorious in the all-American final after former event winner Evan Geiselman beat O'Leary to move into a semi-final showdown against Jake Marshall and then a gritty final with Young.
It marks back-to-back wins in QS events for Young who now sits at number two in the rankings. O'Leary is just inside the top 10 with 7500 points.
Closer to home, two 12-year-old Cronulla High School students have returned from the NSW Bodyboard titles at Kiama on the weekend with a third and fourth placing in the open women's final.
The twins made up half the final at their first NSW titles, a great result for the Cronulla juniors Leah and Bianca Menzies.
Leah got the jump on her sister finishing in third and said she started surfing before Bianca at the age of six - so it was a fair enough result.
"It's our family sport. Dad and grandpa surf, so I am looking forward to competing in the Aussie titles in August at the Tweed coast," Leah said.
"Bodyboarding is fun and it's as good as stand up surfing," Bianca said.
Father Matt said it was difficult to get kids off their electronic devices these days but hoped the results would help the girls remain interested in surfing.
"I'm hoping they can follow in Cronulla's world class female bodyboarder Lilly Pollard's footsteps - or flippers," Matt said.
Cronulla's Barney Ryan won the over-45 grand masters division while Nathan McGregor came second in the cadets.
The NSW junior regional titles are on in Cronulla this weekend. The event is the start of the pathway to the NSW junior state titles as well as the Australian championships.
Ocean & Earth and Surfing NSW are proud to support junior surfing in NSW and not only will regional champions be decided, there are also plenty of prizes and trophies to be won in the under-12s,14s,16s and 18s boys and girls divisions.
Last year the Sydney Southern Beaches event, for surfers from south of Sydney Harbour Bridge to Garie Beach, was held at Maroubra with Jay Brown, April Davey and Sam Cornock earning victories.
Jay is not competing this year but Sam and last year's runners-up Jordan Turansky and Dane De Coque are keen to go one step better at home this year.
It doesn't get any better then this at Cronulla, three days straight of overhead high quality surf-, yesterday's 6-8 ft south swell ,offshore all day and waves everywhere you looked.
They said it was coming albeit a few days late with Monday morning catching the first hint of the swell to come.
Yesterday was the day to have off -overhead waves on every beach and reef in Cronulla-take your pick it was all good but today we are left with a much smaller option with the swell dropping as fast as it picked up to 2-3 ft.
The forecast shows it will drop even smaller to a 1-2 ft east pattern before another 4-6 ft south swell is due on Saturday!
It's the best time of the year with 20 degree water and offshore winds so don't waste any opportunity to get wet.
Day one of the 2019 Gold Coast Open presented by Flight Centre has wrapped up after a big day of competition. Top seeds have dominated the Pro Junior field in clean 2-3ft waves at Burleigh Point, as the sun shone on a picture-perfect Gold Coast day.
Cronulla's Jay Brown flew the flag for the Nulla smashing his first round heat-the Whiteman boys also progressed to keep a bit of Cronulla flavour in the mix.
Tomorrow could potentially see the WQS event get underway, with the event window being from the 8-12 May. The Pro Junior event will wrap up tomorrow.
This year will again host an open Men's and Women's division, as well as the introduction of the Pro Junior Men's and Women's event. As an added value, attendees can look forward to other attractions including live bands, skateboarding event and Mother's Day sunrise yoga sessions.
