Droomer and Holland claim opening round honours at Victorian Open Series

UP AND coming junior surfing stars Willis Droomer (Jan Juc) and Ava Holland (Dromana) claimed Victorian Open series victories at Jan Juc over the weekend.

On Saturday, the first round of the tri-series campaign was forced to shift locations from Bells Beach to Jan Juc due to a lack of quality swell on offer.

Jan Juc was showing fun two-foot waves and an increasing swell into the afternoon, which allowed for plenty of action from the state’s best open surfers as they battled it out for rating points to go towards a Rip Curl Pro Trials berth.

On the men’s side of the draw, incumbent Under-16 ISA World Champion Willis Droomer looked unstoppable from round one through to the final, comfortably winning each of his round heats with some slick forehand carving manoeuvres and aerial prowess.

During the final, Droomer put the rest of his counterparts in a combination situation (requiring two new scoring rides) to finish on a heat total of 18.00 out of a possible 20 points.

Lucas Hickson (Rye) finished in second place on 13.76 points, Tully Wylie (Jan Juc) was third on 10.50 points and Harry de Roth (Phillip Island) was fourth on 8.87 points.

Dromana local Ava Holland, 14, has been in fine form over the past few months, winning the final round of the Victorian Junior Titles in May, claiming the Under-16 girls division at the Skull Candy Oz Grom Open event at Lennox Head and taking out the state open title event in style over the weekend.

In the women’s final, Holland tore up the conditions with her backhand to finish on a heat total of 13.17 points ahead of fellow Mornington Peninsula local Sophie Wilkinson (Shoreham) on 10.77 points. Lucy Naylor (Point Lonsdale) was third on 10.10 points and Sarah Seuren (Inverloch) was fourth on 6.14 points.

The series will now move to the Mornington Peninsula for Round 2 on January 28.

For full results, head to surfingvic.com/live