It has been a few years since Rip Curl South Africa attended the Rip Curl GromSearch International Finals, but 2024 was an excellent year to get back in the game.
Through some good communication early in the year, Rip Curl South Africa, Zigzag Magazine, Sea Harvest and Royal St Andrews Hotel all dug deep to get our U16 GromSearch winners to attend this event, with the whole process overseen by Surfing South Africa.
The South African GromSearch Series
The Rip Curl GromSearch Series was held at events at Long Beach / Witsands in Cape Town, Nahoon Reef in East London, Dairy Beach in Durban, Port Alfred and Cape St Francis.
The winners of the U16 Premier division came out of the surfer’s top four results out of five, and Rory Dace from Seal Point and Louise Lepront from Scottburgh emerged as winners.
In Bali, the contest venue was Pererenan Beach, and the waves were good, with highly contestable beach-break peaks. The fields were stacked, with all sorts of big names appearing on LiveHeats.
Rory and Louise are no strangers to big competitions, with both surfing in the ISA World Juniors this year and Lepront giving it her best shot at a few Challenger Series events, all at the age of sixteen.
Third Place Finishes
Both of the surfers made semi-finals berths, stopped agonisingly close to the finals, and see, as the Rip Curl GromSearch covered by Sun Bum was man-on-man, a loss in the semis equates to a third-place finish, so an excellent result for both surfers.
“The event was the sickest experience ever,” said Dace. “It was so cool to be around so many amazing surfers who pushed the levels of surfing so much. It was good to be around like-minded people, all doing the same thing and working towards similar goals.”
Gilmore, Picklum and Hodge
There was more than just surfing at this event, though.
It was an experience for the two surfers, with new friendships forged and advice and attention given to them by 8-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore, along with CT surfer Molly Picklum and one of WSL’s most popular commentators, Rosy Hodge, originally from East London.
Dace agreed. “The best experience was spending time with Steph, Molly, and Rosy, learning more about the tour. Being in Bali, in general, was also pretty cool.”
Lepront also had a good time hanging out with the crew.
“The event was really cool,” said Lepront. “We were all staying together, hanging together, making new friends, surfing together, and lots of laughs. For me, the best moment was chairing Eden Walla after her win.”
Lepront learned a lot at this event. “It was my first contest on my own, so I learned a lot about how to do things independently and push myself while having fun.”
Ultimately, Dace went down to Dylan Donegan from Spain in his semi-final, while Australian Ziggy Aloha Mackenzie defeated Lepront. Eventually, Lukas Skinner and Eden Walla won the boys’ 16-and-under and girls’ 16-and-under divisions, respectively, but third-place finishes are commendable.
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