Surfing Australia announces a major shakeup of its 2024 Surfing Australia Junior Series

Surfing Australia is thrilled to announce a major shakeup of its 2024 Surfing Australia Junior Series incorporating National Junior Rankings, with the highest rankings points ever awarded to a Surfing Australia event, more live broadcasts and an exciting new seeding process.

In a major boost to the junior pathway, 2024 will also introduce a rolling seeding system. Under this system, an athlete’s seed will be determined on a list of their best three results from a rolling 12-month period. For instance, if an event takes place in April, a surfer’s seeding will consider results from April of the previous year to March of the current year. This rolling seeding will be live and updated after each event and will serve as a valuable tool for event promoters in establishing heat draw seedings, without affecting National Junior Rankings.

Surfing Australia Event Specialist, Rohan Fell said: “We’ve been working closely with our state branches, serving as our event partners, as well as with LiveHeats to create the best pathway Australian junior surfers have ever experienced. The new series will offer more opportunities for junior surfers to compete by introducing new events and expanding the formats of existing events to meet the growing demand we’re witnessing nationwide. Additionally, our third party event promoters play a vital role in connecting this pathway from participation events through to the nation’s premier surfing events.”

The major updates for the 2024 Surfing Australia Junior Series include:

• 2024 Australian Junior Surfing Titles
– Elevated to 12,000 ranking points (up from 10,000)

• Taj Small Fries
– Elevated to 10,000 points (up from 6,500)

• More 10,000 rated events across Australia than ever before
– Taj Small Fries – WA, January 2024
– Sunshine Coast Junior Pro – QLD, April 2024
– Billabong Occy Grom Comp – QLD, June/July 2024
– Skullcandy Oz Grom Open – NSW, July 2024
– Phillip Island Junior Pro presented by Bass Coast Shire – VIC, October 2024
– South Australia and Tasmania – TBC 2025

• All 10,000 rated events will have a live broadcast showcasing Australia’s best juniors

• All 10,000 rated events will have minimum two-person heats from the semi-finals

• All Woolworths Junior State Titles elevated to 7,500 ranking points (up from 5,500)

• U8’s Mixed and U10’s will no longer have ranking points associated to their divisions (effective January 1, 2024)
– Under 12s divisions will be the first to start accumulating ranking points towards the Australian Junior Series

• International competitors are still able to compete however, they will now be excluded from collecting ranking points

The Surfing Australia Junior Series winner in the Under 16 and 18 Male and Female divisions will earn a spot on the Irukandjis team and represent Australia at the ISA World Junior Championships.

Further details HERE.