Denmark’s first-ever junior title round has to wait until next year

Denmark will not host rounds of the WA Longboard and Junior Surf titles this year, both planned for May, but Surfing WA is keen to expose the Great Southern to State events next year.

Surfing WA was set to host round two of the WA Junior Surf Titles in Denmark on May 23 and 24, a week after the second round of the WA Longboard Titles at the same location.

It would have been the first time the Junior Surf Titles had been held Great Southern waters.

Surfing WA is yet to make an official announcement on competitions but the Denmark ones are expected to be cancelled. Surfing WA hopes to return to the water in Geraldton in July.

Surfing WA events and marketing manager Justin Majeks said Denmark deserved the opportunity to host the junior titles, given the array of young talent in the Great Southern.

“This was going to be the first-ever time the South Coast hosted a junior event,” Majeks said.

“We wanted to replicate similar beach breaks to the east coast as this year’s nationals are in Queensland. There is great young talent in Albany and Denmark as well and over the years we’ve seen some fantastic surfers come out of that region.

“It is unlikely the Denmark events will be rescheduled but we definitely want to come back.”

Majeks said it was unfortunate that big plans for the junior titles in Denmark could not happen this year.

“We had grand plans for the week, it was bigger than just the event,” he said.

“We don’t get down to service that area a whole lot so with back-to-back weekends we had planned to provide coaching clinics and other sessions for the locals.

“It was going to be in partnership with the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries in the Great Southern who had given us great support.

“This all started a few years ago when we identified Denmark had some longboard talent and now we have taken a round of that State title there.

“Our plans around the juniors we’ll revisit it next year but we are keen to get down to the South Coast.”