Marie Dejean (La Sauzaie, FRA), 17, and Thomaz Petterson (Santa Catarina, BRA), 20, have won the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Grade-1 Vans Pro Junior event today, respectively in the women’s and the men’s divisions.

Finishing first after four days of intense action that witnessed some impressive scores and progressive surfing, both champions were able to oust event favorites in their respective categories, Dejean clinching her maiden ASP Pro Junior event and Petterson his second consecutive title in a month-time.

Thomaz Petterson, who waited the last minute of the thrity-minute decider to come back from fourth to first in a desperate tentative to post the event’s highest score with a 9.50 point ride, was impressive throughout the event using his unstoppable speed and flying ss to better defending champion Marc Lacomare (Hossegor, FRA), 18, and leave local favorite Jatyr Berasaluce (Sopelana, EUK), 20, in second.

“It’s just amazing to win this event, the second one in a row for me,” Petterson said. “I was just out of the race for the whole heat and I knew that I had to risk everything to hope for a win or a second place. That left came and I just let go with these two airs and landed them. I am so stoked right now.”

Petterson, whose performance in the final showed again he was solid enough to best Europe’s best representatives on their home lands, moves the following event with an immense confidence after achieving in a month more than he had ever done before flying to Europe.

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Courtney Conlogue (Santa Ana, CA), 15, won the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS) 6-Star Hurley U.S. Open today over defending event champion Malia Manuel (Wailua, HI), 15, who claimed the U.S. Open Nike 6.0 Pro Junior, in a high-scoring Final in six-to-eight foot (2 metre) surf today at South Huntington Beach Pier.

Surfers competing at the prestigious Hurley U.S. Open event are battling for the important ratings points on offer towards qualification for the ASP World Tour.

Conlogue won the hard-fought battle over the young Hawaiian with huge backside blasts on the steep lefthanders in the Final to log a 9.00 and an 8.17 in her score line, placing the defending champion in a combination situation. Each of the impressive scores earned by the Huntington Beach local were awarded with one single maneuver, allowing her to take out her first major ASP WQS victory.

“I’m pretty much speechless,” Conlogue said. “Malia (Manuel), she’s an amazing surfer and to win that heat was to die for. I want to thank Malia for putting on a good Final with me. I’m so stoked to have had that Final with her. I was just going out there and having fun and that’s what I’ve been doing this whole contest and it ended up working out. I’m going to try and carry that throughout all of my contests this year.”

The young American’s victory today solidifies her as a threat to the rest of the world’s finest competitive surfing talent and continues to establish the explosive regular-footer as a frontrunner in the women’s progressive surfing movement. After completing her educational goals, Conlogue expects to set her sights on the Women’s ASP World tour.

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Last week, Howard Stern made the surprising announcement on The Howard Stern Show that he deeply regrets that he never took up surfing.  Howard Stern, who is wildly neurotic about his looks, spoke on Wednesday’s show about his inability to get rid of his jiggling belly despite running for miles almost every day and eating a healthy diet.  Howard Stern mused that if he had become a surfer, he could have been fit for life as well as being more meditative and relaxed.  In what seemed to be one of the more serious and self-reflective moments of The Howard Stern Show last week, the King of All Media silenced his co-hosts briefly with his self-professed regret about never having “ridden the waves.”

story via examiner.com