Two young surfers from the Great Lakes put in strong performances in Sydney last week, surfing their way to the finals of one of the biggest grommet competitions in the country.
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Boomerang Beach's Leila Salt and Forster's Jay Pink finished second and fourth respectively in their age divisions of BL's Blast Off at Whale Beach, held from October 1-4.
Having won the event previously in 2015 and 2017, Leila was satisfied with her performance this time around considering the challenging conditions.
"It was a bit tricky. It was small some days but then it got bigger," she said.
"I think I surfed the best that I could have."
Leila progressed through four heats on her way to the final of the under-12 girls division, before falling one place short of the win to a surfer from Noosa.
With talented grommets travelling from all over the East Coast for the contest, she said the standard was quite high.
"Everyone was surfing really good," she said.
She'll now turn her sights to the Australian Junior Surfing Championships at Margaret River in December, where she'll battle it out with the best young surfers in the country for the title of Aussie champion.
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Not to be outdone, Jay Pink showed the Great Lakes is a great breeding ground for young surfers by making the final of the hotly-contested under-14 boys division.
It was Jay's second year in a row making the final, with the stylish natural-footer improving on 2018's fifth place result with a fourth place finish this year.
BL's Blast Off is a school holiday surfing program run by 1988 world surfing champion Barton Lynch.
It aims to introduce surfers between the ages of six and 14 to competition surfing in a friendly and encouraging environment that focuses on surf improvement and family fun.
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