Junior surfers competing at World Champs

After building up a string of epic local results, will compete against 322 athletes from 36 countries in Oceanside, California at the Vissla International Surfing Association (ISA) World Junior Championships this week.

This is the biggest junior competition in the world and has produced some big names that are now competing on the World Tour like Jordy Smith, reigning world champ Gabriel Medina and six-times world champ Stephanie Gilmore.

SA team captain Salt Rock’s Shane Sykes will lead the U18 boys team with Ballito’s Richard Kidd, Ntando Msibi of Durban and Michael Monk of East London.

The U16 boys are Adin Masencamp of the Strand, Jeffreys Bay surfers Joshe Faulkner and Sebastian Williams, and Luke Malherbe of East London.

Teal Hogg from Umhlanga will lead the U18 girls charge with Chanelle Botha from Warner Beach.

Salt Rock’s Sophie Bell and Olivia Izzard of La Lucia are the two U16 girls.

They arrived in California last week and were already training in the Californian beach break as soon as the jet lag wore off.

The opening ceremony took place on Sunday, with the parade of nations and the Sand of the World ceremony, where each team pours some of their local beach sand in a big glass container.

The team sure is experienced and will look to make a name for themselves on the world stage.

The event takes place ‘Olympic style’ with individual medals up for grabs and the coveted world champs team trophy.

Surfing was recently recommended for inclusion in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics so this generation of surfers may be among the first Olympic surfing contenders.

Meanwhile, Sykes won his first two rounds to progress into the top 32 along with Ntando Msibi, while Richard Kidd and Michael Monk have to fight it out in the repercharge rounds after falling in their round two heats. Watch all the action live at isaworlds.com