Maya Malherbe (EL) © Kai Wulff
Seal Point, Cape St Francis – small but contestable waves were the order of the day for the second day of the Rip Curl GromSearch Seal Point presented by Sea Harvest and The Kouga Municipality.
This contest, the fifth and final event in the five-part series, will decide the series winners and award the two U16 division winners special prizes. The U16 Girls and Boys winners will win an entry into the Rip Curl GromSearch International Finals in Bali in November and a R20k travel voucher to be used towards this event. Zigzag Magazine, Sea Harvest, and the Royal St Andrews Hotel in Port Alfred sponsored the prizes, along with Rip Curl.
Early round heats were punctuated by small-wave wizardry and some rock dodging as the conditions headed toward equinox low tide conditions.
Slayde Shooter and Judah Levendal showed supremacy in the U12 Boys division. Maya Malherbe and Camilla Heuer were in charge of the U14 Girls’ division and posted high heat scores to win their respective quarters. Mikayla Jefferis also stood out in this division.
Mikayla Jefferis (JBay) © Kai Wulff
In the Boys’ U14 division, Rip Curl surfer Ben Esterhuyse dominated, winning easily with 14.17 over Levi Vosloo in second in their quarter-final match-up and one of the day’s highest heat totals.
In the U16 girls’ division, Louise Lepront entered the fray and showed her skills, displaying powerful surfing on her backhand and securing her spot in the semifinals. She went on to smash her U18 division quarter-final heat with an unbeatable heat total of 15.40 points, leaving everyone in the heat in a combination situation (two new rides needed by each competitor).
© Kai Wulff
In the competitive U16 Boy’s division, Rory Dace advanced to the semifinals, along with Adam Faclier, Josh Malherbe, Rylan Jarvis, Loghann Tilsley and Matt Canning, among others.
The Rip Curl GromSearch has a live feed, which you can find on the SuperSport Schools app. Register, log in, and use the search function to search for Rip Curl.
Surfing images from Day Two can be found and downloaded from Google Drive; please remember to tag the event #ripcurlgromsearchseals and credit the photographer @louiswulff
Follow the contest on LiveHeats for heat scores in real-time.
The Rip Curl GromSearch contest series is run by Surfing South Africa and supported by Sea Harvest. This tournament is supported by Kouga Municipality, with WiFi by TCS WiFi