West Australian rising star Olive Hardy is making her mark on the world stage, unleashing a dominant opening heat win at the 2025 ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in Peru. The WA talent surged ahead of the field in the Under 16 Girls as Australia opened its campaign in strong form.
Hardy was backed up by fellow Aussies Charli Hately and Lucy Darragh, who also claimed heat wins in the same division to continue Australia’s powerful start in the juniors.
Meanwhile, WA’s Maverick Wilson is set to launch his campaign in the ultra-stacked Under 18 Boys division, after fellow Australians Samuel Lowe and Mitchell Peterson opened with confident heat wins.
In the Under 16 Boys, Australians Max McGillivray, Caden Francis and Ocean Lancaster all powered through their opening round heats, while Isla Huppatz and Ziggie Mackenzie took early wins in the Under 18 Girls. Milla Coco Brown placed third in her opening heat and will now regroup in the repechage round.
Watch Live https://isasurf.org/event/2025-isa-world-junior-surfing-championship/
Read the full ISA recap for Day 2 and Day 1 below.
Pictured: Western Australia’s Olive Hardy making her mark on the world stage with a powerful opening round win in Peru. Credit: Jersson_Barboza / ISA.
Day 2 Recap
Solid six-to-eight-foot lines rolled into Punta Rocas to open Day 2 of the 2025 ISA World Junior Surfing Championship (WJSC), lighting up both the main peak and the inside left of El Bosque. Main Round 1 was completed in both U/18 girls and U/16 boys, with the first 22 heats of U/18 boys and 19 heats of U/16 girls also taking place.
Debuting in the U/18 girls division yesterday in her third ISA WJSC appearance, 14-year-old Miliani Simon (TAH) posted one of the highest single-wave scores of the round. Today, Simon claimed the first excellent score of the U/16 girls, an 8.00, for a critical backhand two-turn combo on a wave at least double overhead for her. Improving her placing each year so far, Simon is aiming to go much deeper in the event in 2025.
“I’m really excited to surf in Peru and do both divisions,” Simon said. “I felt really good. I was super stoked for my wave and I wanted to have a good backup score. I’m really happy to have this team. We’re all really close and we support each other.”
Peruvian medal hopeful Catalina Zariquiey (PER) followed with a strong opening performance of her own. But the only surfer to top Simon’s scores in the round was USA’s Bailey Turner (USA), whose 14.83 heat total included the highest single-wave score for the U/16 girls, an 8.10. Though consistently placing on the podium, including taking silver in 2023, USA haven’t won the Team World Championship since 2019, a fact that Team Captain Will Deane (USA) is hoping to help change in 2025. Deane opened his third and final ISA World Junior campaign with a statement-making 16.00 excellent heat total. The North Carolinian unleashed aggressive laybacks, driving power turns, and even an alley-oop to post an 8.50 and 7.50 in one of the standout performances of the division.
“I’ve been loving the wave, I’ve been here about a week,” Deane said. “It’s definitely been tricky getting it dialled, but I feel like I’m figuring it out and I feel really good. Our team’s amazing, everyone’s been super supportive, and the vibes are really good, so I’m excited to keep it going. This is my third ISA and the last two I feel like I put a lot of pressure on myself and didn’t do as good as I hoped, so this year I feel like I’m letting go. Hopefully I make it far. Our team’s amazing, everyone’s surfing really good. We’re going for gold.”
Claiming wins across the board on opening day courtesy of Avery McDonald (USA), Brody Price (USA), Lanea Mons (USA), and Makai Castle (USA), USA continued strong today. While nerves got the better of Cash Souter (USA), Kylie Pulcini (USA) and Victoria Duprat (USA) also joined Deane and Turner in claiming solid heat wins.
Day 1 Recap
The opening day of competition in the 2025 ISA World Junior Surfing Championship (WJSC) saw big performances deliver high scores right from the start. At the main peak of Punta Rocas, a rising four-to-six-foot of swell provided powerful sections for the first 27 heats of U/18 girls Main Round 1, while further inside the point, El Bosque offered long lefts for the same number of heats to be completed in U/16 boys.
The first surfer to compete in the WJSC as a current Olympian, Siqi Yang (CHN), got straight to work, posting a 9.17 to take an emphatic Round 1 heat win. Yang stuck with pure commitment to the most critical sections on a long wall, finishing in style to claim the highest single-wave score of the event. Once again competing in both U/16 and U/18 divisions, the 16-year-old is feeling confident as she hopes to make even more history by claiming a first-ever ISA medal for China.
“I’m so happy to be here for the World Junior Championships,” Yang said. “The waves here are amazing. I love being at a right point. It’s my first time competing at this wave and everything is so good. I hope more people can come here to surf. The food here is also delicious.”
The patient, committed approach of Mirai Ikeda (JPN) proved effective as the 2022 U/16 girls bronze medalist posted the two highest scores of the U/18 girls division, an 8.67 and an 8.17 for an excellent 16.84 heat total. Now a WSL Challenger Series competitor, Ikeda returns to ISA competition as one of the most experienced in the field, ready to return to the podium.
“I’m feeling really good,” Ikeda said. “This morning the waves were a little bit slow, but now it’s much more consistent and so much fun. I was sad the heat was only 20 minutes, I wanted to keep surfing.”
Three other former medalists progressed today — Thiago Passeri (ARG), Lanea Mons (USA), and Louise Lepront (RSA) — while Clémence Schorsch (FRA) automatically moved forward after another surfer withdrew due to injury.
Defending Team Champion Australia Opens with Strong First Round Showing
Defending team champion Australia had a great return to competition, taking wins in the first two concurrent heats of the event courtesy of Isla Huppatz (AUS) and Max McGillivray (AUS). Meanwhile, returning U/16 gold medalist Ziggy Aloha Mackenzie (AUS) drew strong forehand carves in the rights of Punta Rocas to claim the win in her first heat in U/18, posting a 7.00 and 6.83 for a 13.83 heat total.
“It’s nice to be somewhere different. El Salvador was amazing, but the waves here suit where I live,” Mackenzie said. “I’m excited to get some reps out there and excited to hopefully back myself and back up what we did last year. We’ve got an amazing team this year. Everyone gets along so well and it’s really, really cool to be a part of such a cool group of people. Everyone’s backing each other and backing themselves. It’s honestly one of the strongest teams I think I’ve seen, ever. So the team camaraderie and everything is amazing and can’t wait to keep pushing each other and ourselves.”
Caden Francis (AUS) and Ocean Lancaster (AUS) also won their respective heats, while 2024 U/18 copper medalist Milla Coco Brown (AUS) was sent to repechage needing only a 0.94 to advance. Struggling to find a wave throughout the heat, Brown needed a 5.77 with two minutes left. The 18-year-old picked up a 5.33 but ran out of time to catch anything that would provide her with even a single point. Swiss teammates Marshanda Nikijuluw (SUI) and Célia Magras (SUI) advanced together ahead of the Australian.
Pictured: West Aussies Olive Hardy and Maverick Wilson alongside the best in the country. Team Australia set for action at the ISA World Juniors. Credit: Sean Evans / ISA.
Opening Ceremony
An incredible 424 of the world’s best junior surfers marched in a Parade of Nations along the boardwalk of the Punta Rocas High Performance Center to join in celebrating the Opening Ceremony of the 2025 ISA World Junior Surfing Championship (WJSC). Held at the iconic break of Punta Rocas, the event will begin competition tomorrow, December 6, and run until December 14.
Representatives from a record 57 national teams make up the massive numbers. Members from each nation joined in the traditional ISA Sands of the World ceremony, pouring sand from their home beaches into one container as a symbol of the peaceful gathering of nations of the world through surfing.
Four teams, Angola, India, Saint Lucia, and Slovenia, are present to compete in the WJSC for the first time. For Saint Lucia, one of the newest ISA member nations, it is their first-ever ISA participation.
The athletes gathered were represented on stage by Australia Team Captain Milla Coco Brown (AUS), who swore an oath of good sportsmanship alongside ISA Judge Jacqueline Silva. Also present on stage were National Director of Recreation and Promotion of Sport for the IPD, Jose Luis Casas, FENTA President, Elfri Alfonso Navarrete Narro, and ISA Vice Presidents, Karin Sierralta and Jean-Luc Arassus.
About the International Surfing Association
The International Surfing Association (ISA), founded in 1964, is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the World Governing Authority for Surfing. The ISA governs and defines Surfing as Shortboard, Longboard & Bodyboarding, StandUp Paddle (SUP) Racing and Surfing, Para Surfing, Bodysurfing, Wakesurfing, and all other wave riding activities on any type of waves, and on flat water using wave riding equipment. The ISA crowned its first Men’s and Women’s World Champions in 1964. It crowned the first Big Wave World Champion in 1965; World Junior Champion in 1980; World Kneeboard Champions in 1982; World Longboard Surfing and World Bodyboard Champions in 1988; World Tandem Surfing Champions in 2006; World Masters Champions in 2007; World StandUp Paddle (SUP, both surfing and racing) and Paddleboard Champions in 2012, and World Para SurfingChampions in 2015.
Events
