Our junior surfers fight to stay afloat
THE best junior surfers from across the globe are on the NSW South Coast for the annual world titles.
It’s a glimpse of our emerging champions, and offers an interesting indication of what this year holds as the sport’s power nations change.
Brazil seems to be producing a wave of great talent, as is the US.
However, emerging Australian talent seems to be more scarce than ever before.
Some critics of Australian surfing might cite this as the failings of the development authorities within Australia. But I see it differently.
The increase in the depth of international talent, I think, is simply the result of the sport’s booming global appeal.
It has taken a while for these developing nations to produce great surfers in everexpanding numbers, but they are now mature sports in some very large and powerful sporting countries.
Brazil, for example, has a population of more than 250 million, mostly living on the coast, and the number of surfers coming through with strong developmental pathways is ensuring talent makes it to the top. The US is similar.
Get ready for the next booming region to come from Asia, with outstanding surfers already appearing out of Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan.
So, while Australia enjoyed dominance of the sport for the past 40 years, the global nature of surfing is such that we can never expect similar numbers at the elite end.
The importance will now be to ensure there are always Australian surfers vying for world titles.
Victoria doesn’t have a representative in this year’s event, but we do have a connection to Queensland surfer Liam O’Brien, who is a regular visitor to Victoria and whose father grew up surfing the coast between Portland and Torquay.
The event begins tomorrow at Kiama.
Four-day surf forecast:
It has been a sensational Christmas to New Year period for surfing on the Surf Coast with waves virtually every day.
Expect similar good early waves today around 1m on all reefs, Friday also decent and then smaller clean fun waves through Saturday and Sunday.