A dejected Matt Hewitt is still coming to terms with his season-ending contest in South Australia that bumped him from a shot at competing in the ASP world pro junior series.
The Mt Maunganui 20-year-old went into Fantastic Noodles Pro Junior contest, his last in Australasian junior competition, with the chanceto launch himself into the world's elite junior ranks.
After taking out January's opening round in Victoria and the West Australia leg two months ago, Hewitt lay fifth in the rankings, with only the top four qualifying for the ASP pro junior world tour that begins in Bali in October and finished across the Tasman in January.
Hewitt grabbed an excellent fifth placing over the weekend - but it was small consolation after being overtaken by contest winner Ryan Callinan and another Aussie Dean Bowen, shunting him back to sixth.
It was a tough position to swallow, with Hewitt the only surfer on tour to win more than one contest during the series.
"I'm pretty bummed. I did everything I could this year and the last heat I surfed was the same," Hewitt said yesterday.
"I thought I got scored pretty low in my last heat but there's not much you can do about that." He said it was hard to comprehend right now how fifth placing in South Australia could be construed as a good result.
Hewitt fell to Bowen on a wave-starved final day of the event in a heat that gave the South Africa-born Kiwi limited opportunity to get good scores. Hewitt bagged 9.75 points to Bowen's 12.35.
He was well aware the whole season was on the line in his 30-minute heat."It was pretty serious, I didn't really talk to him [Bowen]. He was focused too. If I made it I would have been in."
Hewitt now becomes reserve in the case of an injury to one of the qualified surfers.
He will head to the United States this week to spend the next two months surfing, training and competing.
Gisborne surfer Johnny Hicks secured the best result of his career, matching Hewitt's fifth at the Fantastic Noodles event to finish 16th in the ratings.
Mount's Alex Dive was 13th in the weekend.
