Rip Curl GromSearch 2008/2009 - Starts up!

Australia’s best young surfers reveled in the clean 3 to 4ft (1.25m) surf at Jan Juc beach today opening the 2008/2009 Rip Curl GromSearch Series presented by SNICKERS with an exhilarating display of progressive surfing.

Newcastle young talents Ryan Callinan (Merewether/15) and Jake Sylvester (Bar Beach/16) were the standouts, adjusting to the cold waters (12 degrees) without a problem and both posted excellent rides to easily win their opening round heats.

Callinan enjoyed the best of the days early clean surf conditions opening with an excellent 8.25 ride and was never challenged to take a comfortable win.

Jake Sylvester was equally impressive posting the day’s highest scoring ride of a 9.1 on his way to an easy round one win. Sylvester is a product of the GromSearch series having won an amazing seven GromSearch events across all divisions of 12, 14 and 16’s!

Local Surfcoast surfers also performed well today lead by Bell’s Beach resident surfer Shyama Buttonshaw who took an easy win. Torquay 14 year old Harrison Mann also won his heat even though he was surfing in the 16 Boys division. Mann will also surf in the Boys 14 division and over the past three months he has demonstrated that he is very capable of winning at this level.

Other locals to progress through included brothers Sam and Jamie Powell (Jan Juc), Perry Slaven (Jan Juc) and Adam Rawson (Jan Juc) who all advanced by placing 2nd in their four man heats.

Jamie Powell was another surfer who will compete in both the 16 and 14 Boys division and after his successful 16 Boys heat today he said “ It’s great to get through that heat but really I’m concentrating on the 14 Boys division – Both divisions will be really hard though because there’s heaps of excellent interstate surfers here and they surf really well.”

The other impressive Victorian surfer today was Phillip Island’s Mitch Baker. Baker is in his final year of the GromSearch series. Baker is a two time previous GromSearch champion very capable of taking another win here.

No surfers were eliminated today with a second chance round two for surfers who placed 3rd and 4th in their round one heats while 1st and 2nd placed surfers go straight to round 3.

All divisions across 12,14 and 16 Boys and girls will run all day everyday through to the finals on Sunday and conditions all week look ideal.

Today’s SNICKERS wave of the day went to Jake Sylvester for his outstanding 9.1 ride

Each day there’ll be a SNICKERS wave of the day awarded to one surfer who performs outstandingly on a single wave and the SNICKERS expression sessions will again feature, encouraging super progressive moves from Australia’s hottest young talents.

Winners of the 16’s division of the Rip Curl GromSearch ratings will receive a guaranteed place in the National Finals at Bells Beach, Victoria during the prestigious World Tour event, the Rip Curl Pro. The Rip Curl GromSearch National Series is held during this event at Easter next year, in front of the thousands of people it attracts – quite a prize for a young surfer who aspires to this.