THE ASP grade 5 Oakley Pro Junior is only a day away from crowning a new champion, with quarterfinalists decided in improving 3-4ft beach break waves at North Stradbroke Island today.
Main Beach once again hosted the prestigious, $30,000 tournament as the world’s top teenagers battled it out across rounds four and five of competition.
Emerging Gold Coast young guns Jack Freestone (Coolangatta) and Dan Pryor (Tugun) have the $7,000 winner’s cheque in their sights after storming into quarterfinal contention.
Coolangatta carver Freestone went from strength-to-strength, progressing through his round four heat before smashing Currarong’s Jordi Watson in a one-sided, round five affair.
The innovative natural foot netting an 8.00 and 7.00 to finish with a two-wave total of 15.00 to Watson’s 8.55.
An excited Freestone said he was pleased to get through the day’s rounds.
“It’s my best ever result at a pro junior event,” said Freestone.
“I’m pretty frothing right now. Hopefully I can continue my form into tomorrow’s finals round.”
Pryor’s dream run at the prestigious junior event continued, ousting Casuarina ripper Brent Savage in their sudden-death, round five heat.
In a one-man show, Pryor amassed a 13.75 heat-winning total to outpoint Savage’s 9.65 tally.
The up-and-coming natural foot represents a new wave of Australian youngsters making waves in the junior ranks.
“It’s good to see the young Aussies going so well,” he said.
“Jack’s (Freestone) pretty young and going really well for his age. He’s surfing really well.”
A confident Pryor says he’s ready for tomorrow’s quarterfinals regardless of the conditions.
“It’s hard to tell where the comps going to be held,” he said.
“The charts are looking good for Cylinders, but time will till. I’m just excited to be apart of finals day.”
Pryor will now take on Ulladulla’s Sam Wrench, who dusted Sunshine Coast surfer Noah Lane, in tomorrow’s quarterfinals, while Freestone will faceoff with no.1 seed Owen Wright (Lennox Head), who also advanced today.
Teen sensation Wright proved he’ll be a major title threat heading into the final day of competition, posting a 13.75 total to outgun Coolangatta’s James Woods in the first heat of round five.
The former Culburra resident was on his ‘A-game’ in the 25-minute, man-on-man heat, pulling out all stops to power through to quarterfinal contention.
Other quarterfinal matchups include Davey Cathels (Narrabeen) vs Sam Lendrum (Nords Wharf) and Miguel Pupo (Brazil) vs Jadson Andre (Brazil).
The 2009 Oakley Pro Junior champion will be crowned tomorrow, with the final to be completed by 3pm.
Cylinder Beach is predicted to host the final day of competition with a spike in easterly swell expected to hit overnight.
The Oakley Pro Junior is the second stop of the 2009 ASP Australasian Pro Junior Series and offers a five-day surfing window, from Tuesday 3rd February to Saturday 7th February, 2009.
The 2009 Oakley Pro Junior is proudly supported by Stradbroke Island Holidays, Stradbroke Ferries, Redland City Council, Waves Magazine, ASP Australasia and Surfing Queensland.