JAN JUC, Victoria/Australia  - Young 14-year-old Sarah Mason (Cabarita Beach/North Coast NSW) provided a gigantic upset on Day 2 of the Quiksilver Jetty Surf Pro Junior, which ran in good quality clean 1 metre surf at Jan Juc beach on Victoria’s Surfcoast.

The diminutive, former-Kiwi surfer, who has now been based in Australia for five years, took an exciting Round 2 heat win in the ASP Pro Junior Women’s division, defeating and eliminating the event’s No. 1 seed Tyler Wright (Lennox Head).

Sixteen-year-old Wright probably has the greatest junior surfing record in Australian surfing, which includes multiple Australian and World Titles along with an ASP World Tour victory at the sport’s highest level, but she struggled in today’s conditions while Mason capitalised by finding better waves to secure a close heat win.

“I never think about who I’m surfing against in my heats, I simply go out and surf my best and try and win,” said Mason after her win today. “Tyler’s a great surfer and now I’ve won the heat it gives me confidence to go a lot further and aim high at this event.”

West Australian surfer Laura Macaulay placed second behind Mason to advance today with Wright close behind in third place but unfortunately eliminated.

Sarah Mason’s older sister Arini also impressively won her Round 2 heat along with Philippa Anderson (Newle) and Ellie–Jean Coffey (North Narrabeen/CrescentHead) who both took strong heat wins.

Ellie- ean Coffey, just 15 years of age, highlighted the depth of young talent coming through the ASP Australasian Pro Junior ranks.

“I have just returned from a High Performance training camp with Surfing Australia and I’m feeling really good about my surfing – even though there’s a lot of girls older than me in the Pro Juniors I now have the confidence to really surf against them and know that I can beat them.” said Coffey who has spent a lot of time over the past two years transient along the northern NSW coastline developing her surfing talents.

Chris Salisbury (Newport/Nth Sydney) and Jerome Forrest (WA/Margaret River) were the outstanding performers as Round 1 of the ASP Pro Junior Men’s was also finalised today.

Salisbury utilized his smooth and powerful backhand surfing to post the days highest wave score of 8.75 out of a possible 10 on his way to a comfortable heat win.

“I’m taking the ASP Australasian Pro Junior circuit very seriously this season – It’s my last year on the circuit and I definitely want to finish the year in the top five on the ratings and qualify for the ASP World Junior Championships” said Salisbury.

Jerome Forrest scored two excellent waves of an 8.45 and an 8 to register the highest heat tally of the day of 16.45.

Victorian surfers had mixed results on day two – Caiden Fowler (Mornington Peninsula) and Tom Allan (Bells Beach) both progressed to round two while Georgia Fish (Flinders) and Nikki Van Dijk (Phillip Island) were surprise eliminations in closely contested round two heats in the Pro Junior women’s.

Tomorrow will most likely see the top seeds including Dean Bowen (Gerroa/South Coast NSW), Garrett Parkes (Byron Bay), Davey Cathels (Nth Narrabeen) and Chris Friend (Sunshine Coast) surfing in round two and surf conditions are expected to remain very similar to today’s good conditions.