Sport

Riding SA's youth surfing wave

5 November 2008

South Africa has a rich history at the Rip Curl Gromsearch International Finals, and the Rainbow Nation's next representatives for the Easter 2009 event have been decided: Beyrick de Vries and Sarah Baum will fly the South African flag at Bells Beach in Australia.

They secured their places by clinching the boys' and girls' titles respectively in the 16-and-under division at the South African Grand Finals of the 2008 Rip Curl Gromsearch series presented by Island Tribe at Southbroom on the weekend.

It was a second consecutive SA Grand Final victory for 14-year-old Baum, who hails from Athlone Park, south of Durban. Earlier this year she placed third amongst her peers from around the globe at Bells Beach in Australia in the International Finals.

SA victory

De Vries will be attending his first Gromsearch International Finals, an event won by South Africa's Dale Staples earlier this year. He is a seasoned international campaigner, having already posted several excellent contest results in various parts of the world.

In the first ever International Finals, in 2005, South Africa's Jordy Smith finished as runner-up in the boys' section, while Nikita Robb clinched the girls' title for SA.

Both Baum and De Vries will also be given wings to participate in Australia, with their air being tickets provided by Red Bull.

Final

In solid one-to-1.5 metre offshore surf that tested the young competitors' ability but improved as the final day wore on, De Vries made the best use of the right-breaking waves pouring down the Southbroom point to defeat Kommetjie's Davey Brand in the under-16 boys' final.

He pocketed R2 000 from the R13 500 event prize-purse for his 12.75 to 9.50 point victory. Earlier, in the semi-finals, he had overcome another goofy-footer, JC Susan of Melkbosstrand.

Brand got the better of fellow Kommetjie resident Michael February in their semi with a great display of backhand riding.

Girls' title

Baum, meanwhile, reversed her round two runner-up finish behind Bianca Buitendag to defeat her SA national junior surfing teammate in the semis and reach the under-16 girls' final. Tanika Hoffman bested fellow Kommetjie surfer and Rip Curl team rider Holly Armstrong in their semi, but could not match Baum's backhand attack in the closely fought finale.

Baum did the double by also grabbing the under-14 girls' title in a low-scoring four-person title decider in which she finished ahead of Caryn MacNicol, Emma Smith, and Chanelle Botha.

Kommetjie surfers dominated the under-14 boys' division with Benji Brand taking the win over Jarred Veldhuis. Brand beat Dylan Lightfoot in the semis, while Veldhuis accounted for Rip Curl team rider Max Armstrong to advance.

Title reversal

Armstrong was successful in under-12 boys' division, making his sponsors happy by winning the four-man final ahead of Brand, Jason Harris and Dylan Wichmann, who finished in that order.

The Rip Curl Gromsearch series presented by Island Tribe is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa (SSA), the national controlling body for the sport, and forms part of the SSA Pro Surf Tour (PST) with ratings points from each event counting towards the annual PST champions.

SA GRAND FINAL RESULTS

U/16 Boys