Riding a wave of success

Margaret River Senior High School students dominated the Mark Richards Shield school surfing divisions of the 2024 YETI Australian Junior Surfing Titles.

The success followed their victory at the WA School Surfing Titles earlier this year.

Tackling the surf at Woonona Beach in New South Wales, the school won the U19 Boys, U19 Girls, and U16 Girls categories, showcasing their strength in Australian junior surfing. 

Kaleisha Launders and Ruby Berry placed first in the U19 Girls division, while Macklin Flynn teamed with Okie Fraser to take out the U19 Boys MR Shield. Leila Fraser and Olive Hardy also scored wins for the school in the U16 Girls. 

Surf Coordinator Mark Meyer acknowledged the hard work that goes into competing at this level.  

“The students that competed in these events have undertaken a huge workload,” he said.  

“They are training every day, either surfing or in the gym whilst trying to keep up with schoolwork. Additionally, they have a massive travel demand when competing at this level. 

“The students are attending comps and high-performance camps in the eastern states regularly. Then the nature of completion itself can be pretty brutal, athletes turn up to a competition after hours of travel and expenses and get knocked out after a 20-minute heat and have to go home. It forces kids to develop a unique mental maturity and resilience.”

To cap off an amazing competition, Olive Hardy followed in her sister Willow Hardy’s footsteps, winning the U16 Women’s final. The win secures Olive a spot on the Irukandjis team to represent Australia at the 2025 ISA World Junior Surfing Championship. 

“Olive was a standout in the individual U16 competition,” said Mark.  

“Olive got an 8.38 for a single turn wave in her first heat of the competition which brought an excitement to the spectators on the beach.  

“Olive is a super powerful surfer for her age and it’s going to be so fun to watch her develop over the next couple years in U18 and Women's divisions.” 

Olive said she was living out her dream. 

“I’m so excited,” she told Surfing Australia. “It has been my dream for so long since I’ve been watching Willow’s heats when I was 12 at El Salvador. 

“I’m just so stoked. Mum and Dad were so stoked—we were all pretty much crying.  

“Over this past week, I’ve had such a good time with Team West Oz. That took the pressure off it, knowing my whole team was backing me.” 

All winners join a prestigious honour roll alongside current and former world tour competitors, including Stephanie Gilmore, Molly Picklum, Sally Fitzgibbons, Laura Enever, Tyler Wright, Nikki Van Dijk, Coco Cairns, Owen Wright, Joel Parkinson, Mick Fanning and Reef Heazlewood. 

Incredibly, Margaret River Senior High School has been unbeatable locally, claiming the WA School Surfing title for 19 consecutive years, with no sign of stopping their record-breaking ride.  

Read more about the winners of the YETI Australian Junior Surfing Titles and MR Shield here.