Perfect 10 Highlights Epic Day 6 of 2024 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Junior Surfing Championship

Australia’s team captain, Dane Henry, earns perfect 10 for seamless full rotation, tops Boy’s U/18 performances

Event standouts continue their dominance, led by Tya Zebrowski (FRA) and Lukas Skinner (ENG)

In second WJSC appearance, Indonesian team stays strong in repechage

Surf City El Salvador – May 9, 2024

A perfect 10 from Australia’s Dane Henry highlighted a massive day six of competition at the 2024 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Junior Surfing Championship (WJSC). Three-to-four feet of clean swell provided an extremely fun playing field for the world’s best junior surfers. Main Event Quarterfinals were held, along with the completion of Repechage Round 2 and most of Round 3 in each of the four divisions.

Australia and Hawaii are locked in first place for the second day in a row in the team rankings, both with a decent lead over USA, Brazil and Japan. Australia has the advantage however, with five of their surfers still in the Main Event, compared to Hawaii with two. In fact, Australians count for a full quarter of the boys who advanced into the Main Event Semifinals today, with four boys out of the 16 remaining.

Australia’s team captain, Dane Henry, earns perfect 10 for seamless full rotation

Australia’s Dane Henry opened a stacked Boy’s U/18 heat against two Hawaiians, Rylan Beavers and Jackson Dorian, as well as Germany’s Kekoa Hummel, with a seamless full rotation in the most critical section of a solid set wave, linking straight into a closeout hit, to earn the first perfect 10 seen in the WJSC since 2022.

Interestingly, Luke Swanson, a teammate of Beavers and Dorian on the 2022 gold medal winning Hawaiian team, was the last surfer to accomplish the feat, also at La Bocana. Henry was able to back up his 10 and take an excellent 16.67 heat total, while another strong showing from Beavers kept him in second, leaving Dorian and Hummel relegated to repechage.

As the Australian team captain, Henry is proud to represent his country and has been truly appreciating the team support element of the event. Appearing in his first WJSC in his final year as a junior, the 17-year-old was happy to be able to bring his notorious air game into the competition, but has also been enjoying showing the strength of his rail surfing in previous heats.

“I want to show myself as an all around surfer, and I believe I am,” Henry said. “I’ve been posting a lot of airs on my Instagram lately, so it hasn’t really showed it, but the 8’s in my other heat felt really good. It was really good to go back to my favorite type of surfing in this heat, doing punts. I’m keen to hopefully aim for two 10’s in the next heat because I feel like I had a couple opportunities, but I’m really happy with my surfing and keen to move on.”

Event standouts continue their dominance

Two waves in as many minutes provided Tya Zebrowski (FRA) with the highest heat total of the day for the girls. A 6.70 from a right was immediately improved upon with an 8.00 on a left for a 14.70 two wave total, seeing Zebrowski into the Main Event Semifinals in both the U/16 and U/18 divisions. The 13-year-old will be joined by 15-year-old Zoie Zietz (NED), who was also able to advance to the Semifinals of both divisions today. Meanwhile, 2023 U/16 bronze medalist Eden Walla (USA) closed with an 8.10, the highest single wave score of the day for Girl’s U/16.

Lukas Skinner (ENG) earned his second 9-point ride and third excellent heat total of the event, giving him three of the top five heat totals of his division. Skinner posted a 9.00 for a huge two-turn combo on his backhand, which was preceded by an 8.27 on his forehand, for a 17.27 heat total. Fellow U/16 boys, the Australian duo of Ocean Lancaster and Maverick Wilson, progressed through the same heat, with Lancaster’s exceptionally mature surfing earning his second excellent heat total of the event, 16.50.

Top honors in Girl’s U/18 went to Vaihiti Inso (HAW) and Sara Freyre (USA). Inso posted the highest heat total of the division, 14.33, while Freyre earned the highest single wave score, 7.60, to take the win in a tough match-up that featured Annette Extabarri (ESP), Catalina Zariquiey (PER) and Paris 2024 qualified surfer Siqi Yang (CHN). Freyre quickly snapped into rhythm in La Bocana’s lefts and Yang was able to build through the heat, but Extabarri and Zariquey struggled to find a score of note and were sent to repechage.

“It was such a stacked heat and I was like, ok, I have to perform, I can’t get through with small scores, I’m going to have to surf my very best if I want to get through,” Freyre said. “My goal was just to find a few good lefts and then that 7.60, I had like third or fourth priority and everyone was to the side and I kind of just snuck away and it came straight to me. I was just happy to find a super fun one.”

In second WJSC appearance, Indonesian team stays strong in repechage

Having appeared in the WJSC only a single time before, in 2010, a revived Indonesian junior team is present in El Salvador. Half of the six person team progressed in repechage today and both Dylan Wilcoxen and Suri Jabrik posted some of the highest numbers of the rounds. Jabrik was especially excited to progress after earning a 7.33 in her heat after holding a 2-point total with only a couple minutes left.

“Oh my god, my heart was beating,” Jabrik said. “I was really nervous, because I think I got that last wave in the last two minutes or something and I really didn’t want to lose because we came here so far from Bali and I wanted to make my country proud.”

Competition will resume tomorrow at 7:00am CST with Boy’s U/18 Repechage Round 4 at La Bocana and the continuation of Boy’s U/16 Repechage Round 3 at El Sunzal.