Hawai‘i juniors take control of the world stage
By Tyler Rock

Event: The 2008 ISA World Junior Surf Championship
Date: May 25 – May 31, 2008
Location: Seignosse, France
Conditions: 1- to 5-foot beachbreak peaks

When you combine 28 countries with teams of up to 12 under-eighteen-year-old junior surf stars, you get no ordinary surf contest. While the ingredients may sound similar to a pro junior or WQS event, the key word here is team. This year’s annual roving contest landed in Seignosse along the southwest coastline of France. Situated just up the beach from the WCT’s France Pro at Hossegor, the sand banks of La Penon offered up long, down the line waves for over 300 competing surfers from around the globe.

The International Surfing Association (ISA), the world governing authority for surfing, has brought the Olympic style of competition to the sport, allowing surfing nations to showcase their most talented surfers who compete for top honors both as individuals and as a team. This event is not taken lightly and allows for heated competition by putting national pride and bragging rights on the line. Teams from Australia, Brazil, USA, South Africa, New Zealand, France and Hawai‘i are revered as powerhouses in the lineup with lots of support and even corporate financial backers. With such high stakes, top competitors continue to push the level of competitive amateur surfing.

The teams are broken up into three divisions— Under 16 Boys and Under 16 and 18 Boys and Girls—with four surfers competing in each division. While team selection differs among country, Hawai‘i team coach Rainos Hayes takes an evaluative approach basing his selection on a surfers’ overall performance throughout the competitive amateur season. Also important to his selection is choosing proud and supportive surfers who are not only ambassadors for the country, but support their fellow teammates. After 10 years of coaching the Hawai‘i world team, Rainos knows the ropes, “Surfing has been such an individual and expressionistic thing in the past that to have an event of this style and stature really makes the kids have to look at things a different way.” He continues, “they’re all pulling for each and supporting each other and that is a large factor in which teams do well.” 

While all the teams showed up with their game faces on, the venue stepped up to do its part as well. The weeklong event saw one- to three-foot waves build throughout the week to a contest finale of clean three- to five-foot walls to go to work on. Entering the last day of competition, the Hawai‘i team was looking good, holding down first place, but as any ISA vet will tell you, it all comes down to who makes the finals to give your team the big points needed to win. Team Hawai‘i pushed two surfers into the closing heats, but it wasn’t enough to hold their lead. Kaua‘i’s Tyler Newton and O‘ahu’s Matty Costa walked away with third place finishes in the Under 18 and Under 16 Boys finals, respectively, and combined with the team’s effort, Hawai‘i placed third overall, mimicking last year’s result following Australia in first and Brazil in second.

Tanner Hendrickson summed up the vibe, “To represent Hawai‘i in a place like this is great. I love everybody back home and to come here and be able to represent Hawai‘i and show all the competitors what it’s like [back home], we’re all friends, we all show aloha and get along and this is what it should be like.”

The 2008 ISA World Junior Surf Championship Results

World Junior Champions
Gold: Australia
Silver: Brazil
Bronze: Hawaii
Copper: USA

Results Boys Under 18
Gold: Alejo Muniz (BRA)
Silver: Owen Wright (AUS)
Bronze: Tyler Newton (HAW)
Copper: Marc Lacomare (FRA)

Results Girls Under 18
Gold: Laura Enever (AUS)
Silver: Tyler Wright (AUS)
Bronze: Courtney Conlogue (USA)
Copper: Airini Mason (NZ)

Results Boys Under 16
Gold: Tamaroa McComb (TAH)
Silver: Peterson Crisanto (BRA)
Bronze: Matty Costa (HAW)
Copper: Ian Fontaine (FRA)

Aloha Cup
Gold: New Zealand
Silver: Australia
Bronze: France
Copper: South Africa