North Shore, Oahu, HAWAII (Jan. 16, 2013) – The 2nd Annual North Shore Surf Shop Pro Junior, presented by Rusty and Da Hui, will get underway on Oahu’s North Shore tomorrow and has a solid week of big waves on tap. The largest pro junior surfing competition in Hawaii’s history will run its first rounds of competition tomorrow, January 17, at Turtle Bay Resort. From January 18-26, the event will run at Sunset Beach. It will feature more than 100 of the top Under 21 surfers in the nation – male and female – as well as juniors from Europe, Japan and South America. Carrying a 3-Star Mens rating and a 2-Star Womens rating, the event will offer $18,000 in prize money.
Male competitors include defending champ Ezekiel Lau (Oahu), Oahu’s Eala Stewart, Kauai’s Kaimana Jaquias, California’s Coffin brothers, Costa Rica’s Carlos Muñoz, Peru’s Cristobal de Col, Italy’s Leonardo Fioravanti, Japan’s Takumi Yasui, and second generation names like Curren, Beschen, Moniz, McNamara, Sarlo, Aikau and Rothman.
Longtime North Shore pro surfer Liam McNamara is the event organizer and founder, and former ASP world #2 ranked Shane Beschen is the contest director.
“It’s awesome to see the progress and it’s a great feeling to give back to the sport that gave me so much,” says McNamara.
“I’m joined by an amazing team of people who have made this possible: ASP Hawaii administrator and backbone Faith Wenzl, who shares the same vision and makes all of this happen; HSA’s Wendell Aoki for event setup; the water patrol team led by Terry Ahue; and head judge Jerry Coffman and his team.
“As they say, it takes a village,” said McNamara. “My hope is that in the future more surfers will get behind the Junior program, give back and get involved. We definitely need to stage more of these events statewide if we are going to keep pace with the development of future surfing champions in other regions.”
With solid surf on tap, Hawaii’s fleet of junior surfers are ready to take on the sport’s ultimate proving ground: Oahu’s North Shore.
