Wade Carmichael : photo SurfingAustralia.com
Rip Curl GromSearch
Presented by Nintendo
Jan Juc Beach Victoria
21 - 24 September 2004
Day 4: Winners decided in solid Jan Juc waves
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 24 September 2004: - - Finals day of the Rip Curl GromSearch Series in Torquay delivered what everyone expected, sensational surfing from the nations very best and youngest surfers. With surfers across all divisions pushing the performance levels, especially over the past two days, the finalists arrived at Jan Juc beach today fully aware that an outstanding performance was essential if they were to leave the beach as a winner.
Leading the charge with an amazing power packed display of surfing was local Victorian surfer Carl Wright (Phillip Island). Carl pulled of an incredible win in the 16 and under boys division and for all who knew his history with this event, it was truly well deserved. Having finished second in the event for the past three years, Carl attacked the final in his typical aggressive way and after posting an excellent 8 point ride mid way through the final looked assured of taking the win.
Newcastle surfer Mitch Noonan had other ideas and late in the final, Mitch found an excellent wave, held nothing back to also notch up an excellent 8 point ride, which moved him to a close second behind Wright, then, he quickly found another good scoring 5.6 ride to take the lead!
Under enormous pressure and with time running out, Wright searched for a required 5.8 ride to get back in front, and with ten seconds to go found a good wave and unleashed everything he had into the long peeling left, scored a seven and took the win!
“So happy to finally win one of these events, I couldn’t have coped with another second and I really wanted to win – Bad luck for the other guy who held the lead and I know how he feels!” The win is very important for Wright who now qualifies for the national Final , which then leads to an International GromSearch final which will run as part of next years Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach during Easter – every young surfers ultimate dream, to surf amongst the World Championship touring surfers!V
The Girls divisions were a huge surprise today – New Zealand surfers came and conquered the best of the Australians with Gisborne pair Mischa Davis and Airini Mason winning the 16 and 14 year divisions respectively. Both girls showed their great talent and dominated their finals to win convincingly!
On a rising 1.5m swell and out going tide, there were some concerns for the 12 and under divisions being able to cope – how wrong the assessments could be! These youngsters took to the solid waves without fear and put on a great exhibition. The Boys division was super close from start to finish and it was on his last wave that Avoca Beach surfer (Central Coast NSW), Wade Carmicheal took out the final. The stoked youngster commented on a great week of surfing by saying “It’s been a lot of fun here and the waves are similar to my home beach – I tried really hard out there and was lucky to get that last good wave to win!”
The 12 and under girls were awesome and handled the waves with incredible skill – Another Phillip Island Victorian surfer, Jessica Laing, took the honors and her last wave, from way out the back through to the shore was her best!
The 14 and under boys was possibly the most anticipated final today following their amazing display all week and they didn’t let anyone down. The NSW contingent finally found an advantage over local charger Todd Rosewell in a closely fought final which saw Newcastl’se Wes Bainbridge, pushing the bigger moves harder, take the win just ahead of Narrrabeens Davey Cathels with Central Coast surfer Sam Paterson 3rd and Todd Rosewell an unlucky fourth.
The Nintendo highest wave scores of the event went to Carl Wright (9.25) and Airini Mason (9.2) while the Telstra Power moves of the event went Newcastle’s Craig Anderson who pulled an amazing air 360 and Mischa Davis.
In the end, there were one hundred stoked young surfers who enjoyed a fantastic week of surfing and participation. Just about everyone won a prize and enjoyed the atmosphere of great surf. Rip Curl Team rider Zane Harrison joined the grommets for the final day in a power packed expression session to close four days of non stop action.
Newcastle is the next stop for the GromSearch Series presented by Nintendo - October 7 -10 and judging by the number of high quality Newcastle surfers at this event, that’s certain to be a huge event.
Day 3: Local surfers strike form in the Rip Curl GromSearch at Jan Juc
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 23 September 2004: - - Day three of the Rip Curl GromSearch saw a number of excellent winning performances from the local surfers who signaled they are definite chances to win their divisions despite the interstate domination over the past 2 days.
Two of the four 16 and under quarter finals were won by Victorian surfers. Local Jan Juc surfer Cahill Bell Warren won his high quality quarter final which saw all four surfers scoring well and all in contention to advance throughout the heat. Bell Warren sealed his heat win with a long peeling backhand wave late in the heat that scored an excellent 8 which was the highest scoring ride of the day.
Happy to be into the semi finals, Bell Warren said of his high scoring ride, “That was the best wave of the heat for sure and I was lucky to be in the right spot at the right time to get it. I knew the heat had to be close because all four of us were getting long rides so I sort of knew I needed a really good wave to progress and thankfully I caught that wave and not the others!”
Bell Warren advanced with Byron Bay’s Nick Colby who has shown good form all week.
The other Victorian to really standout this morning was Phillip Island’s Carl Wright who won his way through to the semi finals with a super powered display of backhand surfing. Wright struggled on the smaller waves early in his heat, but at the half way point found a decent wave and unleashed all his power and was rewarded with a heat winning 7.5 ride.
The Newcastle contingent maintained their strong form with Jesse Davis and Craig Anderson both advancing to the semi finals.
Along with northern NSW standout surfer to date, Mitch Noonan, South Australia’s Teale Vanner and Jan Juc local Troy Carollo, the semi finals are full of quality surfers and are certain to be hotly fought out tomorrow.
The 14 and under divisions are also producing incredible performances. Local girl Darci Egan easily won her way through to the final but she’s well aware the final will be hard to win following the great display of New Zealand’s Airini Mason who won her heat to also join Darci in the final. Airini hails from the surf rich region of Gisborne on New Zealand’s east coast and she is super impressive. She holds the events highest scoring wave to date, an outstanding 9.25 and her final tomorrow is certain to be a highlight of the day.
Boys in the 14 and under division are typically exciting to watch. With skills beyond their years and maximum enthusiasm some classic battles have already been fought through the quarter finals. Dynamic Sydney northern beaches duo, Davey Cathels and Tom Myers attracted all the attention early in the week, but have had a serious challenge to their domination thrown at them from Jan Juc surfer Todd Rosewell. Rosewell and Myers surfed an amazing quarter final heat today, with the lead changing every few minutes. Rosewell, growing in confidence, won the battle and enters tomorrow’s semi finals aware that these visitors are very beatable!
Newcastle’s Wes Bainbridge and southern NSW surfer Sam Paterson were also super impressive semi final qualifiers along with Cathels and another local from Airey’s Inlet in Sebastian Hansen Boyd who is improving every heat.
Today’s conditions suffered with an early onshore wind, however the swells look like holding strong and with a return to offshore winds tomorrow it’s looking good for an awesome finals days which is certain to bring out the best from all these young future stars!
The Nintendo highest wave score of the event is now held by New Zealand’s Airini Mason and she’ll be hard to displace holding a 9.2 while the Telstra power move is still with Mitch Noonan.
Day 2: Newcastle Grommets rule in excellent small beachbreaks!
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 22 September 2004: - - Surfing Legend Mark Richards would have been proud of his home town Newcastle youngsters who dominated day 2 of the Rip Curl GromSearch in Victoria today! With excellent clean 1m waves greeting Australia’s very best young surfers it was a fun day for all, whether competing or enjoying a free surf at Jan Juc .
Under the unique second chance format which allows all young surfers double opportunity to progress through this event, many of yesterdays 3rd and 4th placed surfers competed against each other in their 2nd round heats and enjoyed long peeling waves breaking both left and right on two good sandbanks at Jan Juc.
Avoca Beach surfer Luke Carmichael opened the day with a convincing win in the 16 and under division and after his heat he was both relieved and stoked when saying – “It’s so much fun out there with heaps of good clean waves coming through. Great for me to be still in the event and get this second chance – hopefully I can keep going with my round three heat later!”
Both 16 and 14 years and under round two heats were surfed this morning before moving into the important round three heats where, for the first time , surfers start to be eliminated from the event.
With the tide rolling in, conditions continued to improve. An amazing domination of the 16 and under age bracket appeared with a bunch of extremely talented Newcastle surfers excelling to win three of the first four round three heats and one other finishing second to all progress to round 4!
All from the popular Merewether Beach, home beach to former 4 time World Professional Champion Mark Richards, Jesse Adams, Wes Bainbridge and Craig Anderson all easily won their heats and displayed great talent and enthusiasm that’s certain to see them challenge for the finals as the event progresses.
Jesse Adams was the days standout, posting the highest wave (7.8 out of 10) and heat score (15.5 out of 20) of the event so far. Confident after his heat, Jesse exclaimed – It was a lot of fun, heaps of clean waves peeling left and right so you get plenty of chances to score your two required good waves – I’m enjoying it so far and us Newcastle kids are here to win!”
There were a number of other excellent performers in round three who will ensure the Newcastle kids don’t get it all their own way. Locally, Phillip Islands Carl Wright had a powerful win over Sydney’s Davey Cathels, both progressing and both very refined surfers.
Troy Carollo, Jack Stevenson and Cahill Bell Warren are Jan Juc locals, appreciating such a high quality event at their home beach also surfed well and look serious contenders –
Northern NSW surfer Mitch Noonan was another to impress. Mitch lives on the boarder of NSW/Qld at Fingal and he has such a smooth and powerful style, boasting an outstanding cutback, it’s obvious he get’s plenty of practice surfing the long perfect points surrounding his home beach!
The Girls across all ages enjoyed the day off and simply went free surfing with heaps of fun waves on both sides of the competition banks – They’ll be back in action tomorrow and the outlook is for great waves, possibly getting bigger as we approach the finals on Friday!
The Nintendo Highest wave score of the event is now held by Jesse Adams after his excellent heat today where he posted a 7.8 ride and the Telstra Power move is held by Mitch Noonan who excuted a stylish long floater today!
Day 1: Sydney Grommets rule the small waves on day 1!
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 21 September 2004: - - One hundred of Australia’s best young surfers, both boys and girls, took to the small clean waves at Jan Juc today with enthusiasm that only young surfers could generate given the wave size early on which struggled to get over 0.5m for the opening day of the 2004 Rip Curl GromSearch Series presented by Nintendo.
With perfect offshore winds these talented young surfers were able to generate enough power and speed to successfully pull an array of high quality moves.
Young Narrabeen surfer Davey Cathels , at just 13 years of age, already has high ambitions to become a Pro surfer and while his main focus at the opening event is to win the under 14 Boys division, for added practice he’s also competing in the 16 and under division. Davey opened the day with a very easy heat win over Victoria’s highest rated surfer, Carl Wright from Phillip Island.
The small waves were of no consequence to Cathels who was able to power his board through both left and right peeling waves while Carl Wright, who is considerably physically larger had a lot of trouble simply catching the waves. By finishing 2nd in the four man heat Wright progressed with Cathels to qualifying round 3. The 3rd and 4th placed surfers also get the chance to progress, utilising the unique ‘double chance’ system that allows participants another opportunity if they don’t go well in their first heat.
As the morning progressed and the tide started to move in, waves actually increased in size allowing even more scope for high scoring waves and a number of the interstate competitors stood out.
Highest scoring heat winner of the day was Nick Coleby (Byron Bay) who posted a 14.44 out of a possible 20 winning score – Coleby also notched up the highest single wave score of the day, a 7.67. In the same heat Torquay surfer Cahill Bell – Warren finished an excellent second place – Cahill also notched up two very good wave score (7.6 and a 6.4) to easily progress.
Other strong performers on the opening day were Newcastle surfers Jesse Adams and Wes Bainbridge along with South Australia’s Teale Vanner, who hails from Kangaroo Island. They were amongst the most impressive grommets and surfed with maturity beyond their years in the tricky conditions.
The final heat of round one of the 16 and under boys was probably the most intriguing. Current Victorian 16 year old champion Jackson Collins (Phillip Island) dominated throughout, enhancing his reputation as possibly Victoria’s top emerging junior. Collins is powerful and smooth and very at ease in all conditions, large or as per today, small.
Finishing second behind Collins was possibly the division’s smallest surfer, young Tom Myers from Freshwater Beach Sydney. Myers is just 12 years of age and also surfing in the 16’s division for added practice, but he quickly showed he was more than capable of matching it with the best to easily advance. –
Early rounds of the Girls and Boys 12 and under and 14 and under divisions were also completed today. The outlook is for excellent waves for the remainder of the week with a steadily increasing swell tomorrow and continuing right through to the event finals on Friday which is certain to have all the young surfers super stoked!
The event has two specialty awards over all divisions. The Nintendo highest wave score is presently held by Nick Coleby (7.67) and the Telstra power move is with Torquay’s Cahill Bell Warren ( re entry tail slide), although both surfers expect way bigger moves and wave scores to unfold as the coming days see bigger swells!
Rip Curl GromSearch is proudly presented by Nintendo, with associate partners Telstra and Waves magazine.
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Mark Flanagan
mflanagan@ripcurl.com.au
Groms - Surfersvillage
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