It is a big month for junior surfing competitors with the Skullcandy Oz Grom Open event finishing today at Lennox Head and then more than 250 competitors heading to Coffs Harbour for the Woolworths NSW Junior State Championships.
The six-day Skullcandy event comprised of a WSL-sanctioned junior qualifying series as well as an elite competition for promising grommets in the 12, 14 and 16-year age divisions.
South Cronulla's Jarvis Earle won his first heat with the top score of the day before winning his second and progressing into the semi-finals where he caught an 8 point wave at the death comboing the competitor coming third to progress into the final in a perfect warm up for the NSW titles.
April Davey is Surfing Sutherland Shire's highest-ranked female junior surfer and is competing at the Coffs Harbour event, presented by Ocean and Earth, starting on Friday alongside about a dozen fellow shire surfers.
After Coffs Harbour, the 2019 Havaianas NSW Grommet State Championships will be held at Maroubra Beach which will see another 130 of NSW's best grommet surfers competing in an effort to claim a coveted NSW title from July 26 to 28.
Competitors will be vying for a NSW junior title and in turn, earn their position into the upcoming 2019 Australian Junior Championships which will take place in Western Australia in December.
All qualifiers for the Woolworths NSW State Junior Championships were determined by eight individual regional titles, which took place up and down the NSW coastline earlier this year.
Surfing NSW CEO Luke Madden said the state junior titles were one of the most fiercely contested events on their calendar with competitors hungry to gain themselves a NSW title.
"I think I speak for all competitors and their families when I say that the Woolworths and Havaianas NSW Grommet state titles is one of the most highly anticipated events for our surfing grommets. The atmosphere of the events, as well as the high calibre of surfing in the water make these such fun events for everyone involved," he said.
The last two days of the event at Coffs Harbour will comprise of the NSW School Surfing Titles with Cronulla and Woolooware High among the favourites.
Former competitors in the NSW junior state titles include World Surf League Championship Tour surfers Owen, Mikey and Tyler Wright, Sally Fitzgibbons, Matt Wilkinson, Wade Carmichael and Cronulla's Connor O'Leary.
The NSW junior state titles were split into two events to cater for the growing demand from young surfers.
School holidays has had its bonuses for Cronulla surfers with good quality waves amongst the boring flat bits-the water temp is hovering around 16 degrees so Winter is finally here-suit up!
After Saturdays zero waves there was some nice swell on Sunday which ran into Monday which kicked into Tuesday where a new south swell really delivered us some quality surf with offshores all day.
This morning we have similar conditions to yesterday but it's a little bigger-so get out there and don't waste it- the forecast is not so good with 3ft waves tomorrow and Friday/Saturday morning before a rapid decline to the dreaded FLAT on Monday.
At the Corona Open J-Bay, the sixth stop on the 2019 World Surf League Championship Tour , they completed the remaining two heats of the women's Round of 16 before the wind came up and event organizers called competition off .
Americans Lakey Peterson and Courtney Conlogue won their heats in three-to-six foot conditions at Jeffreys Bay, sending home Australians Bronte Macaulay and Nikki Van Dijk.
They have have promising swell coming Wednesday (tonight our time) for the men's round of 16 matchups and the women's quarterfinals.
After two consecutive lay days. The four-to-six foot waves were critical for the elimination heats in the men's Round of 32 and women's Round of 16 as both utilized the overlapping format to take advantage of the conditions -hopefully Jeffreys Bay awakens today so we can see the best right point on the planet firing.