It was non-stop action for surfers who recently competed in Scottburgh on the final day at the Rip Curl GromSearch #3 presented by Sea Harvest.
The U18 girls final was a tightly-fought battle between some of the top female juniors in the country, with young Scottburgh local Louise Lepront racking up the big points for some dynamic forehand and backhand surfing. She was being pushed hard by Zia Hendricks from JBay, with both goofy-footers picking up some running lefts and executing some powerful turns in the inside bowl.
At the final siren, it was Lepront in the lead, with Zia trailing by a mere .27 of a point. Still, Hendricks had already won the U16 Girls division from Anastasia Venter (Melkbos) and was beaming with a winner’s smile.
In the U18 men’s final, Dan Emslie took to the lead early on in the final by banking a 7.17 ride followed by an 8.83 for some radical forehand surfing to have everyone firmly in combo-land, needing two new waves to catch up.
The finalists were not giving up though, and local Luc Lepront turned in the gas to fire away at a set wave right-hander and get himself out of the combo. Similarly, Christian Venter managed to extricate himself from the combination situation. Still, as the siren went, Emslie emerged victorious from what many people called the best junior final of the year.
“That final was so loaded,” said Emslie on the podium. “Everyone was surfing so well, and I was stoked with the win.”
The Lepront family were all over the prizegiving, with Leah winning the U12 girls, Louise winning the U14 girls and U18 girls, Luc getting a second in the U18 boys and also winning the Rip Curl Rifles Tide Watch for the best male performance of the event.
Final results are as follows:
U12 Girls: 1st Leah Lepront, 2nd Camilla Heuer, 3rd Maya Malherbe, 4th Jasmine Venter.
U12 Boys: 1st Marcello Zedde, 2nd Tyler Balfour, 3rd Sean Tayler, 4th Travis Turrel.
U14 Girls: 1st Louise Lepront, 2nd Maxine Kaufmann, 3rd Layla Koen, 4th Taylor Emslie.
U14 Boys: 1st Josh Malherbe, 2nd Cooper Smith, 3rd Rory Dace, 4th Matt Canning.
U16 Girls: 1st Zia Hendricks, 2nd Anastasia Venter, 3rd Maya Potgieter, 4th Gemma Hanafey.
U18 Girls: 1st Louise Lepront, 2nd Zia Hendricks, 3rd Adriel Wolmarans, 4th Anastasia Venter.
U18 Boys: 1st Dan Emslie, 2nd Luc Lepront, 3rd Christian Venter, 4th Nate Colby.
Rip Curl Rifles Tide Watch for the best performance – Anastasia Venter (girl) and Luc Lepront (boy).
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