32| Sterling Spencer
Birthday: May 26, 1986
Hometown: Gulf Breeze, Florida

Born into the first family of Gulf Coast surfing, Sterling Spencer, son of Yancy III, who’s run the iconic family surf shop since surfers first crawled out of the Everglade swamps, Sterling brings a potent blend of assets to the table. As fellow Gulf riders Shea and Cory Lopez have proved, if you come from the west coast of Florida and you’re hungry for success, you’d sure as hell better be a good traveler. Fortunately, this technical regular-footer is. He’s also competitively savvy, with a top-five finish on the U.S. Pro Junior tour under his belt in ’06, several NSSA East Coast Championships, and a few air show wins to boot. Not blessed with blistering speed, he is comfortable both above the lip and on rail, as well in one-foot Gulf mush and 15-Hawaiian power. Spencer is a very complete surfer.

33| Nick Rozsa
Birthday: September 22, 1987
Hometown: Oxnard, California

The Oxnard/Ventura area is still one of California’s most hardcore outposts, blue-collar and salty. It also tends to show the talent it fosters in bits and pieces—A Tim Curran here, a Dane Reynolds there. But since Reynolds’ breakout, it’s become obvious that there’s no shortage of progressive talent brewing up on the Central Coast, and Nick Rozsa is part of its new guard. From inverted, un-namable airs, to a solid 4th place showing on the ASP’s domestic Junior tour, this freakish regular-foot has the competition/progression combo covered. The question of mental toughness has been raised, as Rozsa’s reputed to have somewhat of a hot head. But it could just be the fire of youth burning. With the likes of Reynolds and Curran regularly making appearance at the very same Oxnard locations Rozsa’s known to frequent, look for his surfing to continue to progress, even as he focuses on the ’QS in 2007

34| Pablo Paulino
Birthday: April 5, 1986
Hometown: Sao Paulo, Brazil

The Brazilian favelas—urban slums—are notoriously difficult to escape, but Pablo Paulino found a way out through his surfing. Growing up surfing on the north facing coastline around Ceara and Fortelez, where the winds never seem to cease, he’s a grovel machine, capable of making the most blown out day look enticing. Now, after winning the Billabong World Juniors back in 2004, he’s finding success on the WQS. Paulino spent 2005 and 2006 quietly building his seed. A runner up result at the 6-star Mormaii Costao Pro in Florianopolis saw him capitalize on his efforts in early ’07, and though it remains to be seen whether Paulino can make the jump onto the WCT, it seems like that’s exactly where he’s headed—especially considering that he’s already beaten long odds to get to where he is today.