Australia Ends Title Drought at ISA World Junior Championships

Despite having the best track record at the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships, Australia had not won a team title in more than a decade. That changed over the weekend.

The Aussies had a dominant showing at El Salvador this past week, taking a commanding lead early and clinching their eighth team title for the first time in 11 years before the final began. They were led by Dane Henry and Ziggy Mackenzie (under 16), who won the boys and girls titles. In properly fun six-foot peaks at La Bocana, Henry channeled his Gold Coast bravado and earned Australia’s first boy’s U18 World Title in 15 years.

“This is the best moment of my life,” said the 17-year-old, who had 16.8 points in the final thanks to a lofty air reverse for a 9.23. “Before the Semis we heard that we got the gold and got the official confirmation and we did a big ring of fire. It’s just all come together after 10 years of us not winning gold. I just can’t believe it. I’m lost for words. It’s been the best experience of my life and I’m so grateful to be captaining this awesome Australian team.”

On the girl’s side, Hawaii’s Vaihiti Inso secured the U18 crown, the eleventh gold medal for a Hawaiian junior, the most in ISA’s 20-year history. Her performance also listed Hawaii into second place as a team. In the final, the goofyfoot from Oahu’s South Shore looked at ease carving apart the lefts on the beachbreak, finishing with a 16.67 heat total.

“I’m almost speechless,” she said. “Honestly my main goal was not the result but just to put on a good performance and I hope I did that. I love surfing and before there was no lefts and all of a sudden the lefts just came that way. So mahalo ke Akua for the waves and God for everything.”

Out of the 16 finalists in four divisions, Australia had four medalists. The team’s victory was aided by Fletcher Kelleher and Milla Brown, who finished with silver and copper, respectively, in their divisions. Spain’s Dylan Donegan won the boy’s U16 World Title after winning seven heats over the weekend.

The American girls had to do most of the heavy lifting for Team USA to finish fourth overall. Sara Freyre, competing in her last World Juniors, finished third in the U18 final. Freyre hails from Huntington Beach and has two NSSA open division titles to her name. Though the Americans are losing one of their most seasoned junior competitors, they still have a deep roster. None more so than San Clemente’s Eden Walla, who at just 14 years old got fourth in the U16 final.

It wasn’t all sunshine and vegemite during the event, however. During a repechage round, Portgual’s Erica Máximo burned Australian Willow Hardy (who had a higher priority and needed a 2.7) in an attempt to prevent her from leapfrogging another Portugal teammate. 

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The two bumped rails while Máximo yelled in Hardy’s face, and she did pretty much everything she could to stop the Australian’s ride, even a cringe-inducing leash-pull attempt. It was blatant unsportsmanlike conduct, and in addition to getting a storm of criticism online, the ISA Máximo disqualified her from the event. Máximo has since apologized for her actions.

In a statement, the ISA stated “Máximo was seen to physically impede and verbally harass” her competitors, thus leading to “not only a grievous example of unsporting conduct but also damaging to the sport of surfing due to her misbehavior.”

It’s not the Olympic stage, but representing your country at a global level comes with responsibility and scrutiny. On a more positive note, there were several notable performances from surfers earning hardware for their country for either the first time or the first in a long time. 

Thiago Passeri of Argentina finished with a bronze medal in the boy’s U16 division, a first for his country. Alexis Owen (copper) got New Zealand’s first medal since 2007. South Africa’s Louise Lepront won bronze in U16 and became the first South African girl to earn a medal at the ISAs since 2011. 

Browse below for the full results:

Team Rankings
Gold – Australia
Silver – Hawaii
Bronze – France
Copper – USA

Boy’s U/16
Gold – Dylan Donegan (ESP)
Silver – Lukas Skinner (ENG)
Bronze – Thiago Passeri (ARG)
Copper – Alexis Owen (NZL)

Girl’s U/16
Gold – Ziggy Mackenzie (AUS)
Silver – Clémence Schorsch (FRA)
Bronze – Louise Le Pront (RSA)
Copper – Eden Walla (USA)

Boy’s U/18
Gold – Dane Henry (AUS)
Silver – Fletcher Kelleher (AUS)
Bronze – Rickson Falcão (BRA)
Copper – Ikko Watanabe (JPN)

Girl’s U/18
Gold – Vaihiti Inso (HAW)
Silver – Tya Zebrowski (FRA)
Bronze – Sara Freyre (USA)
Copper – Milla Brown (AUS)