On Sunday, 17-year old Sammy Lowe from Wollongong capped a testing year by winning the Yeti Australian Junior Men's Title. It came exactly thirty years after his dad, Mick Lowe, began his career the very same way.

Lowe, who's in Year 11 at The Illawarra Grammar School, backed up his huge win by returning to school the next day. He spoke to Swellnet moments after the school bell went to end the day.

(All photos Aaron Hughes/Surfing Australia)

Swellnet: Have you come back down to Earth after yesterday's win?
Sammy Lowe: Yeah, I had to go to school today so that brought me back down a little bit.

We spoke in the surf a few months back. It was half-a-foot, blown out, and dire, yet when I mentioned the conditions you mentioned 'the Aussie Titles in November'. Was your whole year geared towards the contest?
Yeah, for sure. Once I qualified through the states in July, I really ramped everything up to try and prepare myself as best I could for the titles. And that for me was just surfing everything as much as I could; all different type of conditions at home, which thankfully enough we didn't have to experience. Woonona was cooking every day, so that was lucky.

Yeah, the initial forecast was grim, but when the north-east swell built, Woonona was always going to perform.
Yep. I've been surfing a lot in subpar surf just to feel confident that I could surf everything.

You surfed five heats through the week. Two of them were four man heats, you won both of those. One of them was a three man heat, you won that. Two of them were man on man, and you won both of those by combination. That's a pretty dominating performance. Did it feel that way to you?
Well, first of all, I had a really good lead up to the comp the three or four days before it. We had a couple people staying at mine and we were just having heaps of fun doing training days at the beach. Then I got a bunch of new boards and I was just testing those, and I feel like all of that put me in a really good head space.

Also, because I won the State Titles in July, I got seeded into Round Three, and then when it came on I had a build up of nerves. Round One is a non-loser round, so you get a second chance if you lose, and you can build momentum, but being sent straight to Round Three, it's just do or die. In the first 10 minutes of that heat, I fell off on every wave, I barely made a turn. I was barely getting to my feet just because of how nervous I was.

It took a while but once I got a couple waves [Sammy's scoring waves in the heat were his seventh and ninth waves] then I got into a rhythm and felt like I was on.

From that point on, I felt like I could do no wrong in the heat.

And for the rest of the competition in fact.
Yeah, exactly. I didn't really get nervous at all.

There is a bit of symmetry here with your old man - Mick Lowe - who won the Aussie Juniors 30 years ago.
Yeah, I didn't even know about that until I walked down to the comp on the Thursday and I saw the honour roll. I saw Lennix Smith's name in 2019, and then kept looking back and saw Dad's name in 1994, and then Greg McCann's name in 1983.

A lot of local talent.
Lots of local legends. And I'm fortunate enough to be on the list too.

Speaking about your dad: Shortly after winning the Aussie Juniors he did his HSC and qualified for law at university, yet he passed that up to try his luck on the World Tour. What are your plans?
I really want to go to university on the Gold Coast and try and get into a bachelor of business and marketing up there at Bond University. They fast track all their degrees, and I'm really interested in having something as a backup option, but also moving up there to be able to train at the HPC and better my surfing.

If I can get into Bond, I'll have a degree done within two years, and then I've got a backup option by the time I'm 20 and I can give it a real good crack.

OK, favourite subjects at school?
Definitely business, English, geography. Don't mind math. 

Getting good marks in those subjects?
Yeah, I'm doing good at school. When I'm there, I try really hard in class, and I keep up to date. I enjoy it.

So when you're studying you'll chase QS events to get your seedings up. Is that correct?
Yeah, for sure, next couple years I'm going to focus on the pro juniors. Just put my hand in that ring and do a couple of Q'eys to get a good seeding for when I'm a little bit older and a little bit more experienced.

It's a good plan.
Yeah.

Let's speak more specifically about your surfing, Sammy. When I see you free surfing, you've got the board in the air quite a bit, you can clearly do airs, yet when you're competing you keep it more on rail. Is this maybe to avoid injury, or is it to keep something up your sleeve for clutch moments? Why the difference in surfing?
It's definitely to play to my strengths. I feel like I'm known as a powerful surfer - I'm pretty big for my age. And my strength lies in my rail surfing.

I feel like everyone can do airs, but that's also something I'll need to work on to become more well-rounded. But in a contest scenario, I feel like I've got a point of difference compared to the other kids. They're a little bit smaller than me, I can throw more water and push a little bit harder.

Sticking to the rail just gives me a bit of an advantage.

You have had some injuries though, haven't you?
Oh yeah, I've had an injury-riddled year.

Broken nose from hitting the bottom...
That was September.

MCL tear...
Yeah, grade two a week after I broke my nose. I went to the wave pool and tore my MCL. I was out for a month-and-a-half for that. At the start of the year, I hurt myself in Hawaii and I was out for two-and-a-half months.

Considering all those injuries, it's a hell of a way to finish off the year.
Definitely. At the start of the year...well, the very first day of the year, I was sitting in a hospital bed in Hawaii, and I couldn't even walk, and now at the end of my 2024 year, I got the win I wanted.

Fantastic stuff, mate. Next year is year 12. Will you go about it all the same way, or do you plan to knuckle down and do more study?
No, I'm definitely going to focus more on my studies. But yesterday I qualified for the Australian Irukandji team. I'll be competing at the World Junior titles. We don't know where they are yet, but I'll be competing over there and training at the HPC a bit more, I think.

I'll have to juggle surfing and school a little bit more, but I'm pretty keen to just knuckle down and see what I can do.

Well you've proven that you can do both, so keep it up, Sammy.
Thank you.