Mandurah, WA/AUS (Sunday 17th October 2022), The inaugural World Surf League (WSL) Peel Pro Junior champions have been crowned on a thrilling day of competition surfing in Mandurah, Western Australia, with Lennox Chell (Avoca, NSW) and Ellie Harrison (Barwon Heads, VIC) claiming victory at the opening event of the 2022 WA Pro Surf Series.
After small surf and onshore winds forced officials to call a lay day yesterday, finals day delivered for some of the Australia’s very vest 20 and under surfers, who ripped into 2-4 feet surf at Avalon Point with an amazing standard of surfing from both the Men’s and Women’s competitors.
The final event of the 2022 World Surf League (WSL) Australia / Oceania Junior Series, provided many highlights and nail-bitting moments, as Chell and Harrison both confirmed their positions in the WSL World Junior Championships scheduled to run in California in January 2023.
Lennox Chell claimed his maiden Pro Junior victory by taking down Saxon Reber (Manly, NSW), in an all goofy foot final. Both surfers exchanged great waves and big scores in the long running left-handers on offer at Avalon which allowed them to display a full array of innovative and progressive manoeuvres.
Despite an afternoon sea breeze, Chell sliced and diced his way through the conditions with ease, dropping an excellent 8.50 (from a possible 10), on his opening wave before finishing on a two-wave combined total of 12.80 (from a possible 20).
Reber was in great touch all event dropped a high score of 7.00 (from a possible 10), but couldn’t find a back up score when it mattered and was left chasing a 5.81 for the win.
“It’s always nice coming back over here to the West, it’s been a long time since I last won a comp and this is my first Pro Junior win,” said Chell. “Mandurah is really scenic, it’s a nice town with all the canals and stuff, the waves were really fun and glad we scored for finals day.”
About The West Australian Pro Surf Series:
The WA Pro Surf Series was established in 2018 is set to return in 2022. The series has been created for local, Australian and international surfers to gain ranking points and prize money on the WSL Junior Tour and Qualifying Series. Back-to-back events in Mandurah and Yallingup creates a WA coastal road trip for surfers to explore the wide variety of waves, amazing local communities and unique surfing culture of Western Australia.
