The long awaited Ballito Pro got off to a rip roaring start yesterday with the Billabong Junior Series at Willard Beach.

Local surfers Sophie Bell and Dominic Southwood thrilled the home crowd, each coming out on top in their heats to prove that – yes – local is always lekker.

Presented by All Aboard Travel, the Junior Series heralds the start of the thirteen day surfing festival and includes some of the very best junior surfers in the world.

In her heat, Bell came up against some stiff competition in the form of defending junior women’s champ Zoe McDougall from Hawaii, who was on fire in her first heat.

McDougall seamlessly linked powerful turns together as she charged to the highest scores of the JQS1,000 women’s event in the heat.

However, McDougall then had to dig deep to hang on to second place in round two, finishing behind Bell who made full use of her local knowledge to grab the heat win in the tricky afternoon conditions.

The U16 boy’s event completed the four heats of round one with Salt Rock’s Dominic Southwood taking up where Bell left off and holding the local name up high.

Together with Aya Gericke from Wilderness and Durbanites Tide-Lee Ireland and Karl Steen, he will take on the top eight seeded surfers in the SA Surf Tour rated event when the competition resumes today (Wednesday).

Meanwhile, junior men’s rankings leader Jake Elkington from Kommetjie maintained his challenge for a fourth title this year by winning both his encounters, combining excellent manoeuvres with savvy wave choices to advance to the last eight.

Defending event champion Adin Masencamp from Strand is also through to the semifinals after back-to-back heat wins. The current number two on the rankings will come up against Brazilian whizz-kid Samuel Pupo, who was the day’s standout performer.

Hailing from Maresias, a beach town between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro that is not unlike Ballito, Pupo displayed all his aerial skills in his opening clash, flying high above the lip to record scores of 8.33 and 9.33 for the highest heat total of the day, 17.66 out of 20.

Others to safely negotiate their way through two rounds included brothers Joshe and Angelo Faulkner (Jeffreys Bay), Ethan Fletcher (Kommetjie) and East London’s Bryce du Preez and Luke Malherbe.

So don’t miss out on any of the action, make your way down to Willard Beach and make sure Sophie and Dominic feel the local love as they strive to take away wins from the Ballito Pro Billabong Junior Series.

#BillabongJNR Video by Calvin Thompson and music by Skeleton Coast.

https://www.facebook.com/theballitopro/videos/1470233573039027/

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