Victoria Bay: Louise Lepront (Scottburgh) and Rory Dace (Cape St Francis) both won two divisions - The U16 and U18 divisions - at the recent Sea Harvest Vic Bay GromComp presented by Rip Curl. 

Both surfers put on outstanding performances to outpoint their competitors and take double wins in the excellent waves on offer at the iconic right-hand point break this weekend. 

The competition had conditions ranging from perfect on Friday, to massive and unruly on Saturday, and finally ending up clean and highly contestable on Sunday. Despite these challenging conditions, Lepront and Dace emerged victorious, showing strength and adaptability in their performances.

"I had a good start to the U18 final and got a 7.5 ride, but then I couldn't find another good one," said Dace of his U18 Boys' final. In it, Dace was up against Luc Lepront, Clayton Turrel, and Kai Hall. "Then, with about forty seconds to go, I found a good one, rode it through to the inside, and was awarded the score I needed to win. So stoked."

A disappointed Lepront was pushed back to second place, with Clayton Turrell and Kai Hall coming third and fourth, respectively. 

 

U18 Boys (L- R) - SSA's Danielle Powis, Rory Dace, Luc Lepront, Clay Turrell. 

Absent Kai Hall - Photo Cally Taylor

Bolstered by her earlier U16 Girls win, Louis Lepront fought a hard battle on her backhand as waves poured through at Vic Bay, and the dynamic natural-footer Emily Jenkinson chased her hard. In the end, Lepront held onto her lead until the final buzzer to take the win from Jenkinson, with Anastasia Venter and Gabrielle Herbst third and fourth.

 

U18 Girls (L-R) - SSA's Danielle Powis, Louise Lepront, Emily Jenkinson, Anastasia Venter, 

Gabrielle Herbst - Photo Cally Taylor

 

Saturday had plenty of drama as huge waves bashed the coastline. Event officials decided to run the U16 Boys and the U18 Boys rounds, with the smaller waves on the forecast better for the younger divisions. Some surfers had tough heats, confronted by huge waves and challenging paddle-outs, but it was a battle of the fittest and the most determined, and those surfers came out on top. 

On the finals day, Ben Esterhuyse from Cape Town put on his best performance ever in the U14 Boys final. Surfing with his back to the wave (right foot forward), Esterhuyse picked up a great-looking wave at the beginning of the heat to bank an excellent score of 9.0 (out of a possible 10) and start the heat off with confidence.

He then found another perfect wave and performed several high-risk moves that compelled the judges to award him a higher score than his previous one. He was awarded a 9.4, bringing his heat total to 18.4, the event's highest heat total. 

 

U14 Boys (L-R) - SSA's Danielle Powis, Ben Esterhuyse, Owen Heny, Callum Loftus, Charlie Napier Photo by Cally Taylor

With a few surfers not in attendance at this event due to overseas commitments or injuries, as well as a few surprise eliminations on Big Saturday, the results of this event have seen a shake-up in the rankings, which can be found here - https://liveheats.com/surfingsouthafrica

Final Results:

U12 Girls

1. Brin Jarvis

U12 Boys

1. Slayde Shooter
2. Luc Jackson
3. Lazaro De Bruyn
4. Cody Painter

U14 Girls

1. Leah Lepront
2. Camilla Heuer
3. Jasmine Venter
4. Mikayla Jefferis

U14 Boys

1. Ben Esterhuyse
2. Owen Heny
3. Callum Loftus
4. Charlie Napier

U16 Girls

1. Louise Lepront
2. Emily Jenkinson
3. Leah Lepront
4. Sophia Jackson

U16 Boys

1. Rory Dace
2. Rylan Jarvis
3. Ben Esterhuyse
4. Kieran Murphy

U18 Girls

1. Louise Lepront
2. Emily Jenkinson
3. Anastasia Venter
4. Gabrielle Herbst

U18 Boys

1. Rory Dace
2. Luc Lepront
3. Clayton Turrell
4. Kai Hall

Full heat-by-heat event results can be found on the LiveHeats Link. 

The contest was a Surfing South Africa event supported by Eden Surfriders, George Municipality, Eden Sports Council, The Western Cape Government

The Sea Harvest Vic Bay GromComp, presented by Rip Curl, was the seventh SAST event of 2024. The following contest is the Sea Harvest Cape Crown Presented By Xcel Wetsuits at Long Beach on September 6 - 8, and the final Rip Curl GromSearch event presented by Sea Harvest at Seal Point on September 20- 22. 

The junior surfing year will culminate in the SA Junior Championships at Lower Point in JBay from September 24 – 29. 

Distributed by Surfing South Africa

Craig Jarvis

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t. 082 376 4443

About Surfing South Africa

SURFING SOUTH AFRICA is the recognised governing body for Surfriding in South Africa. It is responsible for the activities of all its disciplines, such as surfing, longboarding, bodyboarding, kneeboarding, para surfing and SUP surfing. 

SSA is a member of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), the African Surfing Confederation (ASC) and the International Surfing Association (ISA).

 

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