Three New Zealand surfers will battle out the penultimate day of the 2024 ISA World Junior Surfing Championships being held in El Salvador after a big day of action was completed overnight.

The New Zealand Junior Surfing Team sits in eleventh place overall heading into the final two days and will need big individual results to hold their high ranking among the record 54 nations and 440 surfers that are in attendance.

Six Kiwi surfers were in action overnight while Alexis Owen from Dunedin and Tai Murphy from Ohope were afforded a day off after their efforts on Thursday.

Alani Morse from Raglan was the best performing Kiwi advancing through two rounds to make the top 24 surfers in the Under 16 Girls Division.

“I am pretty stoked to be on the grind still but I want to post some big scores so I will be sending it tomorrow,” says Alani.

The young surfer faces up to three heats in the day.

“Both heats were pretty sick today, I had some close calls but I am taking it all into learning and hopefully I can become a better comp surfer by the end of the trip," says Alani.

Alani placed second in both of her heats and in one case flipped the script on team mate Lola Groube from Pauanui in the dying stages of the heat she shared with her team mate.  Lola finished third in the heat and was eliminated in 33rd overall.

Northland’s Indi-Lee Ruddell contested the same Repechage Round 4 early in the morning and finished fourth in her heat to place 41st overall.

Harrison Biddle. Photo: ISA/Jersson Barboza.

Harrison Biddle (WGM) surfed his way through his first heat of the day thanks to a healthy 11.17 point heat total that included a 7.17 point ride.

Harrison went into the next round full of confidence and held second place for much of the heat before his Australian counterpart posted a 6.90 point ride to run away with the heat progression.  Harrison placed third in the heat to finish 25th overall.

Poppy Arkle from Piha, and Taimana Marupo from Mount Maunganui couldn’t advance their campaigns on day 7 finishing fourth in their Under 18s heats.  Poppy finished in 31st overall and Taimana 41st, both surfers competing in their first World Championship event.

Competition resumes at 1am Sunday morning.  Tai and Alani continue in Repechage Round 6 in do-or-die encounters with up to three heats of competition should they progress through their early rounds.

Dunedin surfer Alexis Owen continues his campaign in the main round of the Under 16 Boys Division. Alexis can take the easy route with two progressions seeing him through to the final.

Alternatively, a loss would see him relegated to the repechage rounds alongside Tai and Alani where he would face a bigger workload to advance to the podium.

In 2023 the New Zealand Team placed tenth overall. 

Day 8 Heat Times (NZ Time)
2am – Tai Murphy – Under 18 Boys Repechage 6 (Podium 1)
3.20am – Alani Morse – Under 16 Girls Repechage Round 6 (Podium 2)
4am – Alexis Owen – Under 16 Boys Main Event Round 5 (Podium 1)

Livestream of the event here: https://isasurf.org/event/2024-surf-city-el-salvador-isa-world-junior-surfing-championship/

The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for surfing, bodyboarding, SUP and surfriding.  It was originally founded as the International Surfing Federation in 1964 and has been running world championships since 1964, and the Junior World Championships since 1980.

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