Tancred was second to former championship tour surfer Connor O’Leary at the 1000-point qualifying series Carve Pro at Maroubra last month and won the Port Stephen Pro, at the same level, in November last year. He was also a two-time winner in Sydney on the junior tour (under-18) in 2018 and opened this year with a second in Queensland.

Tancred secured the 1000-point junior tour Lake Mac Pro with scores of 7.25 and a finishing eight-point ride on Sunday. His 15.25 total was enough to defeat Alister Reginato (13.80), Tane Bowden (10.55) and Jaggar Bartholomew (9.85) in the all-Australian final.

The event was held at Redhead on Saturday but moved to South Catherine Hill Bay on Sunday to chase better conditions. Redhead’s Connor Lee, a wildcard, was a semi-finalist.

Picklum took out the women’s event to make it a perfect start to 2019 on the junior tour. She claimed the opening event in Queensland and was fifth in the senior ranks at the Carve Pro.

The victory was especially sweet for Picklum, who was runner-up at the Surfest pro junior last year.

She won the final on Sunday with scores of 8.75 and 6.65. Her total of 15.40 put her ahead of American Alyssa Spencer (14.15) and fellow Australians Nyxie Ryan (4.85) and Pacha Luque-Light (4.80).

Anna Bay surfer Elle Clayton-Brown, who last week won a wildcard into Surfest’s women’s event at the Birubi Beach trials, was a quarter-finalist. Merewether’s Amelie Bourke and Madison Poole also bowed out in the last 16.

Surfest continues on February 23-24 with the Orica Teams Challenge at Stockton.