Kelly Norris (RED) and Jackson Giles (WHITE) took first and second in an exciting finals day at the Carve Pro Junior today. Pic Surfing NSW/Smith
MAROUBRA, SYDNEY (Sunday, 19 January 2014): Tricky two-to-three foot waves provided the perfect setting for Kelly Norris (Coolum, Qld) to claim the inaugural 2014 Carve Pro Junior at Maroubra Beach from fellow event standout and local surfer Jackson Giles (Maroubra, NSW) who finished the event in the runner-up position.
Both surfers engaged in a fierce dog-eat-dog battle throughout the final with the lead shooting back-and-forth between both surfers. However, after locking in a series of impressive scores, it was Norris who managed to nail down the victory by a 1.67 point margin. As a result, Norris has moved into the number one position on the ASP Australasian Pro Junior Series rankings.
“This is just an incredible feeling,” said Norris. “The waves were really tough out there and Jackson (Giles) is such a good competitor so it could have gone either way. Fortunately, I got one good wave and Jackson was too deep. He’s such a good surfer and I knew he had the hometown crowd behind him as well. I began to stress out in the final ten minutes of the heat after I took the lead and just hoped he didn’t get a wave.”
Norris added: “I haven’t been checking the ratings too much, but it’s definitely great to get into the lead. Hopefully I can stay there for the rest of the year.”
Despite holding a home-court advantage, Jackson Giles was unable to steal the win when Norris locked in an impressive 7.27 wave score (out of a possible 10 points), but nevertheless Giles was still ecstatic with a second place finish.
“I wasn’t expecting too much out of this event, so I’m pretty stoked to have made the final,” said Giles. “I wanted to get a quick score on the board, but it didn’t really happen and I made a priority error and let him have one bomb-set which gave him the score to move into the lead. I’m going to take the confidence out of this and hopefully keep this momentum going into the next few events.”
Cooper Chapman’s (North Narrabeen, NSW) blistering run through the event came to a grinding halt in the Semifinals when he came up against an in-form Kelly Norris. Despite Chapman taking out convincing wins in all his earlier round heats, he was unable to topple Norris who locked in an impressive heat total of 13.33 points (out of a possible 20 points).
“I’m not too happy with the Semifinal finish,” said Chapman. “The result doesn’t faze me too much, I was just really hoping to get as much practice in man-on-man heats in average waves as I could, but I just didn’t get the waves unfortunately. I’ll go refocus now and keep on trying to improve on my man-on-man surfing as we come into the Aussie leg of the ASP World Tour.”
Matty King (Ulladulla, NSW) walked away from his Semifinal with his head held high after finishing second to local surfer Jackson Giles. Despite the south coast natural-footer notching up a series of critical forehand manoeuvres, he was unable to overcome Giles who locked in an impressive two-wave total of 14.50.
“The surf is really hard out there and it really all came down to wave selection,” said King. “I’m pretty happy to get a good result on the ASP Junior Series. I went pretty bad down at Bells [Piping Hot Surf Festival], so I’m pretty content to get a Semifinal finish under my belt. I would’ve liked to go one better, but Jackson is in really good form, so I’m happy to see him go through.”
After blowing away the judges and spectators over the course of the whole event, Jacob Wilcox (Margaret River, WA) unfortunately struggled to find the same form when he came up against Kelly Norris in the Quarterfinals. Despite the talented goofy-footer locking in a 7.67 ride, he was unable to find a second scoring wave and was knocked from the event.
The 2014 Carve Pro Junior is a new ASP Australasia Pro Junior Series event, which was factored into the three-day Ocean and Earth Teenage Rampage.
CARVE PRO JUNIOR FINAL RESULTS
Kelly Norris def. Jackson Giles
CARVE PRO JUNIOR SEMI-FINAL RESULTS
Heat 1: Kelly Norris def. Cooper Chapman
Heat 2: Jackson Giles def. Matty King
CARVE PRO JUNIOR QUARTERFINAL RESULTS
Heat 1: Cooper Chapman def. Louis Gillick
Heat 2: Kelly Norris def. Jacob Wilcox
Heat 3: Matty King def. Johnnie Keith
Heat 4: Jackson Giles def. Jared Hickle
The Carve Pro Junior and the Ocean and Earth Teenage Rampage are proudly sponsored by Carve, Ocean and Earth, Be the Influence – Tackling Binge Drinking, Randwick City Council, Australian Skin Cancer Clinics, HIF, Souths Juniors, Ohana Ocean Athletics, Coastalwatch, Surfing World, NSW Sport & Recreation, ASP Australasia and Surfing NSW.
About the Ocean and Earth Teenage Rampage:
Since 2007, more than 2500 kids have participated in the Ocean and Earth Teenage Rampage around Australia. 2014 will be the second year the former grassroots junior’s series will be compressed and fine-tuned into an elite event. www.oceanearthstore.com
About Carve:
Carve is an Australian based and owned company, established in 1998. This ever growing brand has embedded itself into a wide range of sporting and lifestyle markets, with a presence locally & in the international market place, with a core goal to supply quality products that won’t buckle the bank account. With an over 70-plus strong team covering a wide range of sports & lifestyles including surfing, snowboarding, FMX, MX, MTB, kiteboarding, golf, DJ’s and musicians. www.carve.com.au
