Cover photo: Alan Cleland for WSL/Morris

Mexican Alan Cleland was very close to making it to the grand final of the WSL Junior World Championships which concluded yesterday in Seaside Reef, California on powerful overhead to double overhead waves.

Cleland, who had one of the most convincing performances of the championship, made a mistake with a minute left in his heat, using his priority on a mediocre wave and leaving the door open for his opponent, Jarvis Earle, who on the next wave took the score.

Earle needed 6,5 and after doing a cutback and a strong maneuver the judges gave him 7,23 to get into the grand final and then win the event.

The result goes down in the Mexican's CV as one of the best of his junior career, along with, for example, that final at the US Open and the ISA world vice-championship in 2019.

On Sol Aguirre's side, the Peruvian had a quarterfinal in which she struggled all the time from below; she started with a decent first exchange for her, which received a 6, but it was excellent for the local Sawyer Lindblad, who received just over eight points.

Aguirre then spent 10 minutes eating foam, with the sea pumping she was unable to reach the line up for a long time. Needing 7,54 and without priority, the American let her go on a wave and, with just over three minutes left, she got the score she needed.

But in the next heat Lindblad surfed a mediocre wave that gave him the score to move back into first place.

The tournament was won by Jarvis Earle from Australia and Francisca Veselko from Portugal. These two surfers earned a spot in the challenger series.