The battle is on for the big bucks in the high performance waves of Keramas Beach on Bali, with 18 of the world's top junior surfers going toe-to-toe in the opening round of the US$75,000 Oakley Pro Junior Global Challenge Championship on Thursday.
The championship kicked off with the traditional "blessing of the waters" ceremony, before surfing action got under way with six nonelimination heats completed in round one.
Hawaiian wildcard Dusty Payne set the benchmark in the opening heat of the day, shredding the epic 1.52 meter right hand reef break waves to pieces, beating Brazil's Miguel Popo and Japan's Kaito Ohashi.
"I couldn't have asked for a sicker event," Payne said.
"They're great waves and there's plenty of money up for grabs, so I'm stoked to be here as the wildcard."
Payne, who has only competed in two events so far this year, after suffering a major knee injury before the start of the World Junior Championships at Narrabeen, Australia, in January, took no notice of his prior injury, taking to the skies with some committed aerial moves to finish with a 16.50 two-wave combined total (out of a possible 20).
The 19-year-old Payne led from siren-to-siren, netting an excellent score of 8.00 on his first wave setting up a commanding lead.
The talented natural foot inflicted further pain on his foes, jagging a set wave before unleashing multiple forehand moves to seal the win with an even better 8.50.
"I was trying to feel out my board," he said.
"I hadn't ridden it in a few months, so it was great to get a few waves under my belt."
Payne now moves directly through to round three along with runner-up Popo, while Ohashi will fight it out in Friday's sudden-death round two elimination.
South African sensation Shaun Joubert continued to up the ante, posting both the day's highest individual wave score and combined heat total en route to defeating New Zealander Billy Stairmand and Brazil's Franklin Serpa.
The 19-year-old was all class in the barreling right-handers, weaving through the eye of two reeling tubes to snare a pair of near-perfect 9 pluses (9.5 and 9.43).
After the heat, Joubert said he was pleased to be in Bali.
Joubert finished in first position with 18.93-points, almost eight points clear of Stairmand's 11.9, Serpa came in third on 11.37.
Other big round one winners today included Reunion Island's Romain Cloitre, France's Marc Lacomare and Brazil's Peterson Crisanto, along with South Africa's Nick Godfrey.
Oakley International has held six qualifying rounds in Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, South Africa and the United States, culminating in this grand finale event.
The Global Challenge Championship will be staged over four days of competition, within a 10-day period, between October 7 and 17 in the world class waves of Keramas.
