Macy Callaghan. Photo: Ethdog Smith.
HEAZLEWOOD AND KELLY CROWNED
2017 SUBWAY SURF SERIES CHAMPIONS
THE
Subway Surf Series returned in 2017 with seven pro junior events on the schedule.
Bells Beach in Victoria turned it on for the opening event, with the bowl throwing up classic conditions
for Mikey McDonagh and local girl India Robinson to start their campaigns with solid wins.
“Winning at home means heaps to me. Getting chaired up
the beach at Bells Beach by my brother and Dad was one of
the highlights of my career so far,” said Robinson. “Being able
to have heats at Bells is really special and allows me to get
heaps of experience out here for future events.”
Small but clean conditions greeted competitors for stop 2
of the series in Cronulla. After the dust settled the Sunshine
Coast’s Reef Heazlewood and defending series champion
Macy Callaghan were victorious.
“I’m so stoked to take this out and that there was a pulse
of waves in the final,” said Heazlewood. “Kyuss (King) was
definitely in-form all event and I knew I’d have to fight hard to
beat him. Overall, that was a really fun final.”
Avoca produced arguably the best waves of the series for
stop 3 with overhead beach break conditions making for ex-
cellent surfing from all competitors. Reef Heazlewood was
again on fire from his opening heat and proved the man to
beat in 2017 after taking out the final against Allister Reginato.
“I’m feeling pretty good right now,” said Heazlewood.
“When I turned up this morning the waves looked pretty
tricky, but it got better and better as the day went on and just
040 | Issue 16 // Winter 2017
continued to pulse through. It’s nice to get some clean and
big waves for an event. Hopefully, I can keep getting results
and maybe win the series at the end of this year.”
Cabarita’s Zahli Kelly surfed beyond her years to take out
the women’s side of the draw, winning a low scoring final
against Alyssa Lock. The 13-year-old showing the sort of
flow and power that should see her on the World Tour in
future years.
“It was pumping earlier, but it unfortunately got really diffi-
cult in that final,” said Kelly. “I tried to wait for a good wave
but it didn’t really come. I didn’t set the goal of making the
World Juniors originally, but now that I’m on top of the ratings
I hope I can qualify for the event.”
New Zealand’s Kehu Butler proved too strong for the rest in
the west, narrowly taking down local Kael Walsh at the Trigg
stop of the series.
Alyssa Lock continued her run of strong performances get-
ting the win over Sophia Fulton in the women’s final. The pair
would again feature in the next event final at Kiama, but Ful-
ton this time getting the job done in what is developing into
a strong rivalry.