James McMorland, Connor Lee, Jasmine Sampson and Amelie Bourke were heat winners on a great opening day for Hunter surfers in the 3000-point Central Coast Pro events at Avoca on Tuesday.
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In small conditions, Sampson, from Anna Bay, caught just two waves but made them count, earning scores of 4.33 and 3.73 (8.06 total) to defeat Alexa Muss (5.50), Grace Knight (4.77) and Maile Davis (0) for just her second qualifying series heat win.
Bourke, from Newcastle, then had a breakthrough QS heat victory with scores of 4.83 and 5.73 (10.56) to down Sanoa Dempfle-Olin (8.27) and Aimee Brown (7.73).
Fellow Novocastrian Madison Poole, who was third in the opening women's heat, was the only casualty from the Hunter on day one at Avoca.
In the men's event, McMorland (Caves Beach) was one of the standouts in the 12 heats of round two completed.
His best scores of 6.50 and 7.50 (14) from four waves gave him a comfortable victory over Saxon Lumsden (11.20), Arne Bergwinkl (10.06) and Lucas Wrice (7.93).
Redhead surfer Lee had top scores of 6.50 and 5.20 (11.7) from four attempts to defeat Guy Sato (10.43), Toy Tanaka (10.27) and Darcy Piltz (9.66).
Merewether's Jackson Baker starts in heat 15 of round three.
Newcastle's Sarah Baum begins in heat four of round two in the women's contest, while Corlette's Elle Clayton-Brown is in heat 16. Baum has a win and a second from the two events so far on the NSW Pro Surf Series.
