Sierra Kerr, Jett Schilling Win WSL World Junior Titles
The future is here as Australia’s Sierra Kerr and the United States’ Jett Schilling have won the WSL World Junior Championships. Held in pristine three-foot beachbreak conditions at the Oceanside Pier, after a long week of surfing the two leaned into a combination of passion, commitment and community support to top their respective podiums.
“I just wanna thank my friends,” said a teary Schilling, who dominated the final against Maui's Jackson Bunch from start to finish. “Last year was crazy, I don’t know, stoked to start off really good. This is really special for me, all my friends here…”
Schilling came close to qualifying for the Championship Tour in 2023 and had to grapple with the reality that three of his best friends, Cole Houshmand, Crosby Colapinto and Kade Matson would be graduating the Major Leagues. The sting of something like that would have weakened a lesser man, but Schilling dug deep, and with his friends on the beach, found redemption in a monumental, statement-making world title.
For Kerr, who came into the event a clear favorite after winning the ISA World Junior Title last year, the win was another milestone on her trajectory to greatness. The daughter of a former Championship Tour surfer and aerial pioneer, Kerr’s potent combination of smart heat surfing and ability to pull off high-risk maneuvers has put her at the top of her class as she took out American sensation Zoe Benedetto in the final.
“I think we’re going to go go-karting with the Aussies,” smiled Kerr when asked what she was going to do now that she was both an ISA and WSL world champion.
Besides being crowned world champs, both Kerr and Schilling have earned spots on the 2024 WSL Challenger Series, which will afford them to opportunity to potentially qualify for the 2025 Championship Tour.
The 2024 WSL Championship Tour season kicks off at the end of this month with the Pipe Pro in Hawaii. Stay tuned for highlights and more updates from Oceanside as they become available.
Men's Quarterfinalists Decided At World Junior Championships
With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.