Seal Point, Cape St Francis – In small and onshore conditions, Taylor Emslie and Rory Dace emerged victorious in the premier U16 Division at the Rip Curl GromSearch Final event presented by Sea Harvest.
When all the points had been tallied, Louise Lepront and Rory Dace were the clear series winners. They received an entry into the Rip Curl Global Finals in Bali in November and a R20k travel voucher for their travels.
The best junior surfers battled it out in challenging conditions at Seal Point for event trophies, prizemoney and series points. The demanding conditions didn’t slow anyone down, and there was some red-hot and innovative surfing, some spirited performances and, on occasion, some serious rock-dodging going down.
In the U12 Girls final, local goofy-footer Brin Jarvis took the honours, beating Ella Van Der Made into second position, with Adriana Canning and Camilla Prins third and fourth, respectively.
Another local surfer and goofy-footer, Leo Macleod, caused an upset in the U12 Boys Division with a decisive win, defeating Levi Vosloo. Seal Point local Slayde Shooter was third, and Marcello Zedde was fourth.
Leah Lepront took out the U14 Girls division in a closely fought final. “It was tricky out there, and rocks were popping up on most waves, but I managed to get what I needed,” said Lepront after the final. “Lila also got a few, but I’m stoked about the win. Thanks to my family for all the support.” She beat Lila Aszalos into second, Jasmine Venter came third, and Camilla Heuer was fourth.
Ben Esterhuyse is one of the most winningest surfers of the 2024 Rip Curl GromSearch series, triumphing in most of the events and making several finals in the U16 division. “It has been a good season so far; stoked with the win, and I plan on taking this energy with me to SA Champs next week in JBay,” said a very happy Esterhuyse after his win was announced. “A big shout out to my parents who get me to all these events and ensure I am ready and prepared for every contest.” He beat Levi Vosloo in second, with Sebastian Copson and Slayde Shooter in the minor positions.
Louise Lepront continued her winning ways in taking out the U18 Girls division with a decisive win over Anastasia Venter. Finding a few gems in the rough, she put her powerful backhand to work and was awarded big scores. Opening up with a solid 7.17 score, she was out in front from the beginning, and the rest of the competitors were playing catchup. Venter was pushing hard but couldn’t get a score to match Lepront’s opening ride, and victory went to Lepront. Emily Jenkinson was third in the final, with Catherine Jacob in fourth.
Levi Epenetos was on fire in the U18 Boys, eventually defeating Loghann Tilsley in an exciting final. Tilsley had found form the entire event with some massive scores in the earlier rounds and was looking the dangerman in the final. Still, Epenetos found waves with open faces and got the scores with his backhand hooks. Luc Lepront and Kane Johnstone battled to find decent waves and settled for third and fourth places, respectively.
All the winners
In the Premier U16 Girls division, Taylor Emslie caused a major upset by taking out the highly-rated Louis Lepront in this final. Emslie was trailing Lepront but picked up one absolute gem of a wave and performed some critical turns on the open face for a well-deserved score of 6.33 to sneak into the lead. Lepront was chasing a 4.16 – a difficult score to find in the dwindling conditions – and a last-ditch effort on a small wave was unsuccessful. Emslie – a Buffalo City surfer – was the very stoked and deserving winner, with Lepront in second, Jasmine Venter in third and Emily Jenkinson in fourth.
The Premier U16 Boys was a tumultuous affair. Loghann Tilsley had a strong lead from the start, but local surfer Rory Dace was hot on his heels. Rory needed just over 7 points to take the lead and picked up a rough-looking wave that opened up for him on the inside, and he managed to get a few big hits for a score of 7.33 and the lead. With only 3 minutes left, the ocean teased and toyed with the competitors but produced nothing more of any value to the surfers. Dace hung onto the lead until the final siren to take the win.
“After my first turn, I knew that I had a good score coming out, but I just didn’t know how good it was going to be,” said Dace. “The wave closed out on me right on the inside, so I was trying to get another move in, and I knew it would be close. Luckily, the judges gave me the score needed.” The final result had Dace in front, with Tilsley behind him second. Josh Malherbe and Tristan Gaylard Ralfe were third and fourth.
Rory Dace
The Premier U16 Series Winners were decided on the surfers’ top four out of five GromSearch series results. Once their results had been finalised, Louise Lepront and Rory Dace emerged as the clear winners, and they will be competing in the Rip Curl GromSearch Global Finals in Bali in November. They both won a R20k travel voucher to assist them with this trip, sponsored by Zigzag Magazine and supported by Sea Harvest and The Royal St Andrews Hotel.
The Rip Curl GromSearch had a live feed, which you can find on the SuperSport Schools app. The app allows you to replay the heats from the event. Register, log in, and use the search function to search for Rip Curl.
The final results of all the final heats can be found on LiveHeats.
The Rip Curl GromSearch contest series is run by Surfing South Africa and supported by Sea Harvest. This comp was supported by Kouga Municipality, with WiFi by TCS WiFi.
Get all the info from Day 1 and Day 2. And, more info about the event, here.
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