Jake Halstead wins Individual Silver and Lakey Peterson wins Individual Copper in 2010 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships

Piha, New Zealand - Sunday, January 28 - The PacSun USA Surf Team battled hard all week in a wide variety of conditions. In the end, the prize was Bronze. The Australians claimed the Gold Medal and the Hawaiians, Silver, in the Team Division at the 2010 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in Piha, New Zealand.

With no USA Team finalists in the Boys Under 18 Division, it was up to Jake Halstead in the Under 16's and Santa Barbara's Lakey Peterson in the Girls Division.

"With 12 of the best under 18 US surfers on the plane to Piha, NZ, I was confident that we had a USA Team with the skills to win a Gold," said PacSun USA Surf Team Head Coach, Ian Cairns. "Our main rivals have traditionally been Australia, Hawaii, South Africa and France and I was keen to improve on the 2009 4th place finish."

"Piha is a short beach between two headlands and has vicious rips and currents during the 10' tide change with the surfing location switching from the left on the south end of the beach at low tide and a right at the north end at high tide," Cairns furthered. "The second area was at North Piha that hosted mostly repercharge heats."

There were some ups and downs through six of the eight days of competition but with just two days left, Team USA had 10 of our original 12 live and looking strong.

"For me this event was a great learning experience and we will be back in 2011 with a great young US team, new strategies and a revitalized effort," said Cairns.