Led by Granger Larsen, some up-and-coming surfers from Maui will get to showcase their skills Down Under in January.

Larsen was the surprise winner of the Billabong Junior Pro In Memory of Ronnie Burns contest yesterday at Kewalo Basin.

"It's my biggest win, for sure," said Larsen, a home-schooled sophomore from Lahaina. "These are the best junior pros in Hawai'i, and I won the whole thing. I don't even realize what I've done yet."

The contest was for the state's top surfers ages 21 and younger, professional or amateur. The top finishers earned a trip to Australia to represent Hawai'i in the Billabong World Junior Championships in January.

Larsen defeated fellow Maui surfer Hank Gaskell in the one-on-one final of the junior men's division.

Carissa Moore, an eighth-grader at Punahou School, won the junior girls division.

The final day of the two-day event was completed yesterday in 2- to 5-foot waves.

Six surfers earned trips to Australia based on yesterday's results: Larsen, Gaskell, Kai Barger and T.J. Barron in the junior men's division; Moore and runner-up Coco Ho in the junior girls division.

One more junior men's surfer from Hawai'i will be selected at the end of the year based on overall performance through the year.

Larsen, Gaskell and Barger are all from Maui.

"The Maui boys have kind of been dominating lately," Gaskell said. "That's why I'm stoked for Granger. If I was going to lose to anybody in the final, I'm glad it was to one of the Maui boys."

At 15, Larsen was one of the younger competitors in the junior men's field, so his victory was considered somewhat of an upset.

"I came to this contest just hoping to surf a couple of heats," he said. "All my heats were hard, but I kept making it through. I don't even know how I did it."

He said he was most surprised with his victory over the 19-year-old Gaskell.

"Hank's older than me and I've watched him surf for a long time," Larsen said. "When I saw I was up against him in the final, I was like 'OK, second place is still good.' "

But Larsen took control of the 30-minute final heat early, racking up scores of 8.0 and 7.65 in the first 10 minutes.

Gaskell caught more waves than Larsen (15 to 9), but could never put together a high-scoring combination.

"I was getting waves, just not the right ones," Gaskell said. "Every wave I got, I'd do one turn, and then the rest of the wave would disappear."

In the final tally, Larsen's best two waves received a total score of 15.65 to Gaskell's 12.5. Larsen received $2,500, while Gaskell got $1,100.

Earlier in the day, Larsen won his semifinal heat over Barger with a last-minute wave.

"That one wave came to me and I made it," Larsen said. "That's why I was happy just to be in the final."

In the quarterfinals, Gaskell eliminated last year's winner, Kekoa Bacalso of Mililani.

In the junior girls final, Moore dominated from start to finish.

As proof of her prowess, she received an 8.5 for completing several carving maneuvers on a left-handed wave, and then later got an 8.75 for completing similar moves on a right-handed wave.

"I like going both right and left, it doesn't matter to me," Moore said. "The waves were really awesome."

By the midway point of the final heat, the other three finalists needed perfect 10s to catch Moore.

"I couldn't really hear the scores, so I kept surfing hard, trying my best," Moore said. "I was nervous out there, but I had fun also."

Ho, the daughter of North Shore surfer Michael Ho, placed second, followed by Leilani Gryde of the Big Island, and then Missy Valdez of Wahiawa.

This is the first year that a junior girls division will be staged at the world championships.

Yesterday's contest was held in honor of the late North Shore surfer Ronnie Burns, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1990.

FINAL RESULTS

Junior men: 1, Granger Larsen (Maui), $2,500. 2, Hank Gaskell (Maui), $1,100. 3 (tie), T.J. Barron (O'ahu) and Kai Barger (Maui), $800. 5 (tie), Dustin Cuizon (O'ahu), Kekoa Bacalso (O'ahu), Dusty Payne (Maui) and Chas Chidester (O'ahu), $600.

Junior girls: 1, Carissa Moore (O'ahu), $1,000. 2, Coco Ho (O'ahu), $700. 3, Leilani Gryde (Big Island), $500. 4, Missy Valdez (O'ahu), $300. 5 (tie), Lani Hunter (O'ahu) and Leila Hurst (Kaua'i). 7 (tie), Alana Blanchard (Kaua'i) and Katherine Van Dyke (O'ahu).

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.