Congrats to the new U/18 NSW State Champion Max McGuigan.

After a hard-fought battle against in-form Cronulla surfer Jay Brown, McGuigan exploded in the later stages of the heat, posting two above-average scores to finish with an impressive two-wave heat total of 15.34 and take the top spot.

“It feels unreal — I have been chasing that title for a long time, but I finally got there,” McGuigan, said. “It was a pretty tough event given that there were a lot of really good surfers out there … everyone surfed really well but I just stuck to what I knew and in the end I came out on top.

“There is a little bit of rivalry with Jay but we’re really good mates and get along unreal, he was pretty happy for me.”

Max will now lead the NSW team in the Aussie Titles at Culburra in Nov and in this win gives him a wildcard into the 2018 Australian Open of Surfing at Manly in February 2018