Surfing America, the national governing body for surfing in the USA, is excited to announce the 2009 PacSun USA Surf Team travel roster that will compete at the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in Ecuador from March 28-April 5. After a grueling week of adverse conditions, PacSun USA Surf Team Head Coach Joey Buran made tough but calculated decisions as he trimmed his 30-man roster down to the 16 who will make up the travel squad and represent the United States.
 
The we week-long training camp, run in the rain, blustery wind and at times hail, saw standout performances in the three divisions in which the PacSun USA Surf Team will compete: Boys Under 16, Boys Under 18 and Girls Under 18.
 
The Under 18 Boys are led into battle by perhaps the hottest surfer on the national team, Santa Cruz’s Nat Young. A rising star whose breakthrough 2008 has thus far carried over nicely into ’09, Young’s style should be well suited to handle the left-hand point break at La FAE. Young is the United States’ best chance at a gold medal in the Under 18 division. Rounding out the rest of the 18s are Evan Thompson who was on the team two years ago and brings some solid ISA experience, Fisher Heverly and Chase Wilson who fought through a stomach virus and six back-to-back heats to claim the last spot.
 
“Our Under 18s look strong. We do have Nat Young and Chase Wilson returning as veterans from last year’s team,” Buran said. “And we’ve filled in with Fisher Heverly and Evan Thompson who’s had success in the WQS Juniors in North America, is an elite surfer, made finals at NSSA Nationals.”
 
For the Under 18 Girls, their leader is clear -- Courtney Conlogue. Last year’s third place finisher at the ISA World Juniors, Conlogue is one of the favorites to take top podium honors in Ecuador. “We have the veterans in Courtney, who’s obviously a gold medal favorite and Kaleigh [Gilchrist], who’s solid,” Buran said. “Lakey [Peterson]’s really young, Lani [Doherty]’s young. They’ve both made some finals at the USA Champs and NSSA Nationals.
 
Headlining the travel roster are the Under 16 Boys.  A deep and immensely talented group of budding superstars, Coach Buran made no attempt to hide his expectations for this group during the week. Time after time Buran referred to the Under 16s as the most talented group of 15-year-old surfers you’ll find on the planet. It goes without saying, Buran expects gold from these boys. “I would expect in Under 16 we’ll do damage,” Coach Buran said. Out of Kolohe Andino, Conner Coffin, Evan Geiselman, and Ian Crane, Buran thinks all of these kids have a legitimate shot at medaling.

From March 28 to April 5 the waves of the Playa de las FAE in Salinas, Ecuador, will host the greatest junior surfing event in the world: the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship.

More than 200 of the best athletes of about 30 different countries will be competing for one of the greatest honors to which a junior surfer can aspire: a podium in an International Surfing Association (ISA) event. The ISA is the World Governing Authority of Surfing and all its disciplines, recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

The event will crown the world champions in the categories Boys Under 18, Boys Under 16 and Girls Under 18, as well as the World Junior Champion nation, after the results of all its participants have been added.  Each team will be represented by four members in each of the categories; therefore, a complete team will be composed of twelve athletes.

ISA President, Fernando Aguerre, commented on this upcoming event: I’m very happy that a major ISA event is going to be held in Ecuador, the host of the 2004 ISA World Surfing Games. It’s a great country with warm people, hot waves and weather - for sure a place to spend some extra days before or after the competition.

Regarding the fact that Ecuador is the first Hispanic American country to host an edition of the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship, Aguerre said: This is proof that Surfing in that region is maturing in a great way, in countries that only 20 years ago would not be considered surfing countries like Ecuador and Costa Rica, host of the ISA World Surfing Games later this year. We’re looking forward to hot surfing, a substantial increase of junior surfing level.”

It will be the seventh edition of the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship.  The event started its history soon after ISA decided to separate the Junior category from the World Surfing Games, to offer the best Under 18 athletes their own event.  The decision proved a correct one and transformed itself in a mandatory stop for the best young athletes, since it became a talent incubator of the future leaders of world surfing.

The first competition happened in South Africa in 2003, continued in Tahiti (2004), California (2005), Brazil (2006), Portugal (2007) and France in 2008.  In this way, Ecuador becomes the first Hispanic-American country to host the WJSC.