Early Favorites Come Strong On World Junior Championships' Opening Day
Clean, rippable and cold, that was the order of the day as the opening day of the WSL World Junior Championships got underway. Going into the event my pick to make the men’s final was Californian Jett Schilling and Australian Joel Vaughan. Day one in the books and my mind hasn’t changed.
Vaughan put in one of the most nails performances of the day. With an 8-point ride in his scoreline, he looks intent on going the distance. When we spoke with him last month he pointed to this being his last opportunity to win a world junior title before aging up. Last year he posted a 10-point ride on the Challenger Series, so clearly bigger things are on the horizon for the Aussie.
“Every single heat is super stacked. You kind of just, almost try not to look at the heats,” Vaughan said in his post-heat interview. “I’m really looking forward to just competing again in the Challenger Series. My goal is to qualify this year and put as much effort in as I can and work really hard toward that.”
It’s much the same story with Schilling. The San Clemente star enjoyed much success on the Challenger Series last year and only missed qualifying for the Championship Tour by a few spots. His buddies Kade Matson, Cole Houshmand and Crosby Colapinto all graduated to the Big Leagues, but have been running mock heats with Schilling and training with him for his final world junior run.
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And Schilling’s not alone as fellow Lowers homie Taj Lindblad also did damage on the opening day. Getting a wildcard into the event, Lindblad upset the establishment with an opening round heat win.
“It felt really good to get that heat win,” said Lindblad afterwards. “I surf here a lot. Mostly because T-street is really flat, so we always drive down here and end up surfing the pier. It’s kind of home. I’m sleeping in my own bed and wins are fun, so that’s always a plus. It clicked in my head I probably need more foam. I’m lucky enough to have [Kolohe Andino], and he gave me three boards for this event.”
On the women’s side of the draw, my early picks of Erin Brooks and Sierra Kerr still stands. Brooks is a competitive animal at 16 and seemingly just gets better with every heat. Showing her grit, she fought back in her heat with an 8-point ride in the dying minutes to take the win.
“The girls in my heat were surfing so well, so I knew I needed to step it up and I was waiting for waves that weren’t really coming,” she explained. “I kind of had to scramble at the last minute.”
The next call from Oceanside comes tomorrow morning, January 10. Up next, it’s nail-biting time as the Elimination Rounds get underway.
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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.