Young Guns Round Two Is Now Live

Doesn’t Quiksilver’s Young Guns offer such promise of surfing’s bright future? A global, digital contest that attracts the world’s best under-18s, curating a crop bursting with talent who’ll guide our sport’s performance into the new frontier!

Round one was a wild affair. It never ceases to amaze how much talent there is out there in the grom age bracket. It’s that whole monkey see, monkey do jam. And Round two, which just kicked off, tightens focus and enjoys an even higher median performance level.

This round is all about audience voting. Thirty groms are in the round two mix, and they’ll each produce a short hype reel of themselves, at which point they’ll rely on votes to get ‘em to the next round, aka the final 10. Voting ends July 15.

So, what makes a good movie part? According to aerial judge Mikey Wright, “full-on hectic surfing. Exciting, fast and powerful.” Combo judge, Jeremy Flores, elaborates a little more: “I love to seeing a solid combination of manoeuvres, but you can’t beat one huge turn on a critical section. A good movie part shows good variation. One wave might be a massive carve, and the next wave might be an air. The other thing I love to see is surfers showing some balls and surfing in bigger waves. You don’t even have to make the wave, just show some solid commitment in a big slab or close out. That’s what is exciting for me.”

Rail judge, Hawaiian Zeke Lau, says this on the importance of music, lifestyle cuts, variety and filming locations: “I’m not too critical on all the lifestyle stuff or where it is exactly. All I wanna see is some good surfing and a good song. When it’s all said and done, when the clip ends you should have me psyching to go surf.” Mikey Wright is a little more specific: “Music is everything when it comes to making a clip. It’s what makes the clip. Pick a sick song, mix it with some good surfing and you have an edit.”

Lessons here? Go hard, choose amazing music, mix up your surfing and above all, get the viewer psyched to go shred.

And, audience? Go vote for the future, here.