Margaret River Senior High School dominance will face challenges amid bright surfing future: coach

The head of Margaret River Senior High School’s champion surf academy says the future looks bright after his young chargers recently secured their 19th shield win.

Teacher and surf instructor Mark Meyer told the Times his squad continued Margaret River’s dominance in junior surfing, but his young athletes were well aware other WA schools desperately wanted the champion school crown for themselves.

“Continuing the dominance into the future is going to be hard,” he said.

“I feel other regions are really catching up as surfing becomes a more mainstream sport in WA.”

Schools across WA had the advantage compared to other States thanks to the support of Surfing WA and three annual junior schools events rather than just one.

The rising strength of other schools was reflected in the results from the 19th round after Cruz Uros and Flynn Eastaugh won the junior boys competition for Mackillop Catholic College.

“The junior boys surfing division seemed to have the largest depth of talent and it was hard to predict a winner in this division from the earliest of rounds,” Mr Meyer said.

MRSHS students claimed victory in four of the eight categories at Trigg Beach on Friday, August 30, winning the senior boys surfing, senior girls surfing, junior girls surfing and junior girls bodyboarding divisions.

Macklin Flynn and Okie Fraser were the victorious boys pair and Ruby Berry and Kaleisha Lauders were the winning girls duo as the school pulled off a clean sweep of both senior surfing categories.

“I’m really proud of the MRSHS team and they should be proud of themselves,” Mr Meyer said.

“It was another dominant performance for our school and the kids from our school really set a high standard and professionalism in preparing for heats.”

However, the teacher said he was not attached to any expectation MRSHS would continue its stellar run completely unhindered.

“I often get asked if I feel pressure to win for the school, but our streak is bound to end at some point,” he said.

“When the streak does happen, it’s a great sign that WA surfing is in a good place.

“I was pondering at what gives MRSHS the edge in the school competition,” the teacher said.

“I think our region has this strength, not just because of good local waves, but the consistency of waves along our coast.”

He also saluted the tenacity of his students.

“Margaret River has all the ingredients to develop more surfing stars in the future,” Mr Meyer said.

“With the school’s surf academy, local boardrider groups, high-performance coaching, Surfing WA competitions, the Margs Pro event, wave pool plans in Perth and having a plethora of local surfing heroes – from Jack Robinson, Bronte Macaulay and Jacob Wilcox surfing in world tour events – there is no shortage of inspiration and support for our kids.”

The coordinator also thanked the support of parents as well as external providers such as Jarrad Davies and the Margaret River Surf School as well as Surfing WA and sponsors Think Mental Health.