COFFS Harbour surfers Will and Luca Martin have formed a dynamic duo to win a national title.

The brothers combined to win the MR Shield event at the Australian Junior Surfing Titles at Phillip Island.

The MR Shield is a team event for surfers 16 years and under, with the Martin’s forming the winning two-person Queensland team.

The Coffs Harbour Boardriders Club members relocated to Queensland earlier this year to be a part of the Surfing Excellence program at Palm Beach Currumbin State High School.

Coffs Harbour Boardriders Club social media coordinator Emma Dean explained what the brothers’ national title victory meant for the club.

“Having the two brothers in the MR Shield final really cements what we strive for in a club – a big focus on junior development,” she said.

“The boys moved to the Gold Coast for competing reasons, but are still involved in our junior development programs.

“It means that hopefully this is just the beginning of seeing our juniors recognised for their talents, as now we have a real depth of groms from eight-years-old ready to follow in Will and Luca’s footsteps.

“It’s really encouraging for them as they can see the work needed to put in to get to this level of competing and having the Martin boys on board to encourage the other groms is something you can’t buy – it needs to happen within our club and it has.

“All the hard work developing and coaching the groms (not only the Martins) has started to get us the publicity for being a very strong club with a huge focus on developing the skill sets of these juniors to be well rounded competitors in and out of the water.

“We have a large group of junior boys who are just on the cusp of winning these types of events and in 2024 we will also push hard for our girls to step up as well.

“We’ll be doing a big recruitment drive for girls in the new year with some very exciting female pro surfers coming to visit us and work with the girls next year.”

Dean also highlighted the efforts of another of the club’s juniors.

“We had Carter Crowley representing us in the Under 14 boys Junior Aussie Titles at Phillip Island,” she said.

“He and Luca came equal fifth as they both were knocked out in the semi-final.

“Pretty big achievement for our small club to have two boys in the top six surfers in the Australian Under 14 Boys division.”

By Aiden BURGESS