TravelSIM Team Australia Motivated by Former World Champions En Route to the ISA World Junior Surfing Championship

TRAVELSIM Team Australia has received some extra motivation by past World Champion’s Barton Lynch (Narrabeen, NSW) and Peter Townend (Huntington Beach, California) en route to the prestigious Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship.

As the first key preparation initiative for the country’s athletes, the Australian junior team were presented with their team uniforms as well as treated to a motivational talk from Lynch (1988 World Champion) to help prepare for the high-stakes tournament.

“It has been a pleasure to be able to engage with the Australian team and present them with their respective team uniforms before they head off to represent Australia,” said Lynch.
“Following on from the ISA World Surfing Games in Peru in October, 2010, I was able to offer the junior team insight into the geography of the event location as well as motivate the team to bring home the gold medal to Australia.” 

 

“There are some extremely talented kids in this year’s team and hopefully they can continue the tradition of Australia dominating the ISA World Junior Surfing Championship,” he said.

Following on from the pre-event preparations with Lynch, all team members and coaches were welcomed on arrival in Los Angeles, USA by surfing legend and 1976 World Champion Townend for a team preparation camp.

The reigning ISA World Surfing Champions hit the beach against Townend’s NSSA (National Scholastic Surfing Association) / HBHS (Huntington Beach High School) Surf Team in Orange County, California for some pre-event practice.

Australia is well represented heading into the championship boasting a 12-strong field of Australia’s top class junior surfers who will wear the green and gold and compete for their nation in the quest for the prestigious mantle of the “World’s Best Surfing Nation”. 

Surfers selected across the team’s three divisions (under 18 boys and girls and under 16 boys) include:

U/18 Boys
Creed McTaggart (Margaret River, WA)
Jake Sylvester (Bar Beach, NSW)
Cooper Chapman (North Narrabeen, NSW)
Connor O’Leary (Cronulla, NSW)

U/16 Boys

Kai Hing (Wurtulla, QLD)
Mitchell Parkinson (Tweed Heads, NSW)
Soli Bailey (Suffolk Park, NSW)
Eli Steele (Moffat Beach, QLD)

U/18 Girls

Nikki Van Dijk (Cowes, VIC)
Ellie-Jean Coffey (Cresent Head, NSW)
Codie Klein (Kingscliff, NSW)
Brodie Doyle (Rainbow Bay, QLD)
Accompanying our TravelSIM Team Australia athletes is a dedicated support team which will ensure the success of team, these include:

Head Coach– Martin Dunn                                                                                                            Assistant Coach– Mark Richardson
Team Manager– James Eggington
Medical Practitioner– Matt Butel
Sports Science Manager– Jeremy Sheppard
Security Manager for Team Australia– David Wood 

Surfing Australia would like to show its support to the athletes selected into the 2011 TravelSIM Australian Junior Surfing Team as they head into the fast approaching Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship, which will be held at the wave rich Costa Verde, Lima, Peru, from May 21 to May 29, 2011.

The 2011 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship has gathered the finest surfers from over 60 nations to compete in the Boys Under 18, Boys Under 16 and Girls Under 18 divisions. As members of their respective National Surf Teams, surfers will compete for the glory of winning Team and Individual Gold, Silver, Bronze and Copper medals. 

With the support and coaching of Surfing Australia’s High Performance Centre (HPC), TravelSIM Team Australia will be fighting to defend their current world title and would like to recognise the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), TravelSIM, Suncorp and BASE for their continuing support of the Team Australia Junior Program.