Cruz MacDonald takes the weather with him to end home club domination at Junior Surfing Titles

More than 100 grommets hit the waves in Yallingup over the weekend where Geraldton’s Cruz MacDonald dominated his under-14 boys’ division. The titles bring together the best young talent from across WA across all junior divisions from under-12s to under-18s. Local Dunsborough surfers were dominant, but Macdonald came up trumps for Geraldton to continue his strong junior form. In the under-14 boys division, Geraldton’s Cruz MacDonald dominated on his way to the final, comfortably winning both of his heats before easing through his semifinal with a score of 11.25 the only double-digit total. The final saw him pitted against old foe Jasper Glossop, who had also had an undefeated run to the final, with the two often facing off in finals as they’ve come through the ranks together. Glossop had the early advantage but MacDonald kept his patience to claim the biggest wave of the final with a 7.25 that left his competitors in his wake with a combined 12.55 total. Despite being far from home MacDonald credited familiar conditions for his victory. “It’s always windy in Geraldton so I was quite comfortable in the conditions out there,” MacDonald said. “I’m really motivated to try and make the State team this year and this is a perfect start to the series for me.” It was an important win for MacDonald to keep pressure on Glossop who is currently leading the under 14 rankings. The win moves MacDonald into third place on 9800 points with Glossop on 12,150. A top two finish at the next event could see MacDonald jump Ethan Anderson who is only 625 points ahead for outright second place. It was a clean sweep for Dunsborough in the under-16 division as Rosie Gillett and Cruz Uros took out the girls’ and boys’ titles. Uros in the most competitive field of any category eased into the final winning both of his heats before edging out an incredibly tight semifinal where the top three all finished within a point of each other. But come the final Uros was in no mood for a scrap, laying down a massive 7.63 on his second wave to take control of the final and finish with an 11.60, 1.83 clear of Swanbourne’s Charlie Harris in second. “The under-16s is so stacked this year with so many good surfers and so much improvement in this division,” Uros said. “All these events are so fun and I’m pumped to take the win.” On the girls’ side, Gillett was up against former under-14 State champion Olive Hardy from Margaret River and had to settle for second in her first heat before she finished behind Leila Fraser in the semifinal to come in as the third-ranked surfer. It looked as if Hardy would once again come up trumps with no one able to match her opening wave of 6.13. But a weak second score of 3.77 left an opening for Gillett and with the buzzer sounding she caught a final wave of 5.30 to edge past Hardy and claim a dramatic final by just 0.08 of a point at the death. The journey towards crowning WA’s junior surfing champions will continue when the competition heads to Perth’s Trigg Beach in May.