THE finals of Round 1 of the Woolworths Victorian Junior Surfing Titles were held at Phillip Island on Sunday, February 5 and the locals didn’t have to wait long for an early thrill when Scarlett Rennie, a student at Newhaven College, finished a narrow second in the Under 14 Girls final.
Not a bad effort for a Phillip Island Boardriders’ Club member aged 10 competing in the Under 14 division.
With two more rounds in the Junior Surfing Vic titles to go she’s in shape to make the Under 14 team for the Australian Junior Championships. That would be something!
Delighted with her own success, Scarlett ran over to support the winner in the event, Rose Holland from Dromana, when she was chaired off the beach by fans and family by holding Rose’s board behind just as they do in the pro surfing events.
Scarlett got a nice wave at the end of the event to improve her standing and came out of the shifting Smiths Beach waves with a broad smile on her face.
Arch Rayner of Inverloch got a combo of rides up early in the cross-shore conditions to take the lead in the Under 14 Boys final, moving further left in the line-up than the others to try to find some clear air.
He then grabbed a long ride with plenty of completed turns to score a 7.77.
But Kai Coleman of Torquay scored a handy 6.17 ride to move strongly into second and soon after picked up another decent wave for a 6.83 score to take a narrow lead.
Arch was still working the wider position but couldn’t find another good-scoring wave until late when a sloppy reforming wave looped nicely up for him, but he couldn’t quite bridge the gap.
You couldn’t knock his endeavour, however, surfing an incredible 11 scoring waves in the final to the next best on six- waves.
Again, the local junior was pleased with the podium finish with two rounds still to go.
The event continued with the Girls Under 16 final with Sara Hickson finding four scoring waves to narrowly defeat Ava Holland in second.
In the boys under 16 final, Sandy Point surfing twins Jarrah and Rye Cicero were facing off with Jerry Kelly and Jack Lindsay.
Midway through, Jarrah picked out two good waves and surfed them to their full potential to move into the lead from Jack Lindsay, one of them an 8.0 score.
Both Jerry Kelly and Jack Lindsay pulled out two excellent waves of their own demonstrating full commitment on their cutbacks in a quality final, Kelly moving into second with an 8.03 pointer of his own. The wind had dropped, the waves were holding up better and the older, stronger surfers were making the most of it.
Jerry Kelly went into the lead at the five-minute mark with a handy-sized wave and a decent 5.37 score.
Priority was with Jarrah with two minutes to go but his next wave wasn’t what he was looking for with a minute left.
A desperate Jarrah took an inside wave hoping for luck, but it wasn’t to be and Jerry Kelly came out on top by only a 1.10 margin.
Rye Cicero got better the further the final went, nailing his best two waves right at the end and demonstrating some aggressive manoeuvres along the way. He could be one to watch in the remaining two rounds.
In the under 18 girls final, Sandy Point’s Eva Bassed took an early lead in suddenly sloppy conditions as the tide dropped, but Sarsha Pancic found a decent wave to move up into top spot with a 5.50 score relegating Eva back to second. Sarsha caught a 4.40 to extend the lead further.
Eva had priority later in the final and was waiting out the back for the right one, which can be a bit of a problem with priority. She ultimately took a close-out wave for no improvement with 7.5 minutes to go.
Eva’s next wave was a good size and she pulled off a couple of manoeuvres but couldn’t surf it out, scoring a 4.20 when she needed a 6.20 to take back the lead. It left Sarsha out in front, a worthy winner after some thrilling surfing in the bigger waves at Summerland Beach the day before.
The sun finally popped out and right on cue the sandflies materialized out of nowhere to annoy the hell out of the crowd with only the Under 18 Boys final to come.
The tightest contest of the day was a battle between Peninsula and West Coast surfers with Willem Watson 13.56 just edging Lucas Hickson on 13.37. To Watson’s credit he was the busiest competitor in the field, finding seven scoring waves.
The presentations were held in the Smiths Beach Carpark afterwards and while the local surfers didn’t get the chance to stand on top of the podium in any of the divisions, they were right there in the thick of it on finals day.