Bali, Indonesia – The Rip Curl GromSearch International Final 2024, covered by Sun Bum kicked off on Tuesday, November 12th. With finalists winning through from participating countries across the surfing globe to come together to showcase the future of surfing. Rory Dace (Cape St Francis) and Louise Lepront (Scottburgh) are the two surfers representing South Africa. They won the 2024 Rip Curl GromSearch Series in South Africa.
Balinese Opening Ceremony
Proceedings began with a vibrant traditional Balinese opening ceremony, followed by the athletes being presented with custom rash vests, each featuring their name on the back.
Competitors with their custom rash vests © Rip Curl
Day 1 of the event (Wednesday, November 13th) started with an early Search mission to find uncrowded waves for the opening seeding round. The day was a success delivering 2-3 foot, bowly right-handers with an uncrowded line-up. Therefore, Event Director Harrison Mann decided it was the perfect opportunity to run the seeding round as a non-elimination round. It had two 4-person heats per division to determine the seedings for Round 1. Thus athletes were scored based on their best wave.
“It was worth the gamble today,” said Harrison Mann. “We scored some super fun waves with no one around. The standard of surfing was incredible, and today was just a sneak peek of the fireworks we have in store for Friday and Saturday at Pererenan Beach.”
Gilmore, Picklum and Hodge
Judging the seeding round was a panel of surfing royalty with 8-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore, Olympian Molly Picklum and former WCT surfer Rosy Hodge.
The Girls 16 & Under opening round was dominated by goofy-footers backhand attacks. Louise Lepront (ZAF) and Jasmine Studer (IDN) performed tight backhand snaps in the pocket, with Jasmine scoring the highest girl’s score of the day – a 7.77 for two powerful backhand re-entries.
After watching the girl’s performances, the U16 Boys were eager to get into action. Lukas Skinner started strong with multiple good scoring rides, showcasing his quick rail game and aerial attack. However, he solidified the day’s first “excellent” score – a lofty air reverse on a set wave, earning an 8.17.
Lukas Skinner © Rip Curl
The final seeding round of the day was action-packed, with multiple excellent scores. Lucas Cassity kicked things off with an 8.33 for a huge straight air into an air reverse off the end section. Still, Dylan Donegan stole the show with a combination of powerful rail turns and aerials. He earned the highest score of the day, 9.0 for an incredible ride.
All-Star Tag-Team
The day ended with an exciting all-star tag-team competition featuring Stephanie Gilmore, Molly Picklum, and Rosy Hodge. Each of them lead their teams in a 6-surfer, 50-minute heat, with a double whammy surfer to finish. The heat was action-packed and very close until the very end. So, it was 14-year-old Aditya Somiya (IDN) stole the show for Team Rosy with an 8.5 for three critical turns in the pocket. Despite Steph Gilmore’s 8.7, it wasn’t enough to stop Team Rosy from winning the tag-team event with 45.75 points. Thus Team Steph finished second with 41.65, and Team Molly finished third with 30.75.
Round 1 action will kick off tomorrow morning at Pererenan Beach at 7 a.m. with the Girl’s Round 1. Also, the surf is forecasted to be 3 feet and super clean, giving the groms a chance to showcase their skills on the world stage.
So, keep up with all the action on LiveHeats and live broadcast for finals day on YouTube. Watch the first episode of Rip Curl GromSearch International Final 2024 – Episode 1.
The Rip Curl GromSearch Global Finals will be covered by Zigzag Magazine, and the two-grom team is supported by Zigzag, Sea Harvest, the Royal St Andrews Hotel, and Surfing South Africa.
ends./
