New York Wahine Carries East Coast At Rip Curl
GromSearch National Champs In Puerto Rico By Nick McGregor
TURF: Rip
Curl GromSearch National Champs; Middles, Isabela, PR; October 31st-November
1st, 2010.
ENERGY: When
you’re teamed up with the Men’s and Women’s World Tour, you have to expect to
get the crap end of the stick when it comes to wave windows. On one hand, you
could say the groms got sent out in the worst conditions of the weekend, as Rip
Curl waited until late Sunday afternoon and mid-morning on Monday to run the
GromSearch National Champs. But on the other hand, all of these kids were more
than stoked to have some windy three- to four-foot chunks to chase around
— and thrilled out of their minds to cede the almost-epic conditions to
their male and female heroes on the World Tour.
FIRST TIME AT FIGHT CLUB: Almost all of the East Coasters who qualified for the
Rip Curl GromSearch National Champs practically have Puerto Rico in their blood
— Quincy Davis spends winters here, while Floridians Jasset Umbel and
Nikki Viesins are regular visitors. And Chelsea Tuach must have been stoked to
only hop a short flight over from Barbados. South Carolina’s Cam Richards is
always a wintertime standout, while Keto Burns and Dylan Kowalski are also
frequent Borinquen fliers. But it was the 12/Under division that offered up the
biggest new opportunity for some wide-eyed Rightside groms: Southern North
Carolina’s Stevie Pittman, Daytona Beach, FL’s, Cobie Gittner, and Barbados’
Dane Mackie. And let’s give Rip Curl props for throwing a Puerto Rican
qualifier that allowed Mauricio Diaz, Eduardo Alfonso, and Gabriella Rudi entry into the event.
SLIDE: Make
no mistake, however: although the Rightside kids did their best to make us
proud, the Californian and Hawaiian contingent — Parker Coffin, Jake
Marshall, Jacob Smith, Koa Smith, Ian Gentil, Seth Moniz — really stood
out in the punch-packing Middles conditions. But in the opening salvo of the Boys
16/Under division, Cam Richards shined the brightest on his backside, quickly notching a 5.0
and a 7.83 for the heat win and an automatic advancement to the final. ““I
think it’s easier on your backhand,” Richards said. “You can read the wave a
little more after your bottom turn, and I think that suits me better. But man,
I was nervous when we paddled out after Men’s World Tour, with thousands of
people watching on the beach and online.”
In the second Boys 16/Under
opener, St. Augustine, FL’s, Keto Burns went on the attack, driving through a
barrel and following it up with some mean frontside carves to ensure he’d
finish in 2nd-place to advance to the Repercharge round. North Carolina/ Hawaii
half-timer Dylan Kowalski had trouble finding makeable waves, getting a few
forehand hacks off before falling on his best wave of the heat and catching an
inside reform at the buzzer to try and get the 2.0 he needed to jump out of
4th-place. But it wasn’t to be for Dylan, as the foam swallowed him and spat
him back onshore without a final scoring ride.
Keto barely missed making it
out of Repercharge — a dubious call in this writer’s opinion, given his
flurry of frontside hacks — leaving Cam as the lone East Coaster in the
marquee 16/Under final. “This division is a little more important than Boys
14/Under,” Richards said, “because if I win I go to Bells Beach [for the
GromSearch International final]. But I’d like to win both. I love competing, so
this is right where I want to be.” Cam struggled a bit in the final against Koa
Smith, Colin Moran, and Andrew Jacobson, chasing down low-scoring waves and
falling into a quick hole where he needed a 10 with over 15 minutes to go. He
worked his way up slowly but surely, notching a 3.77 and a 6.13 for a solid
blowtail reverse, but that still left him needing a 6.48 to overcome Koa’s
lead. Cam got a last-second insider, did a couple of turns and even an
air-reverse at the end, but he only got a 5.10 and came in looking more than
upset, with his chance at an all-expenses-paid trip to Bells Beach officially
gone.
In Girls 16/Under, Central
Florida’s Nikki Viesins and New York’s Quincy Davis both won their heats to go
straight to the final. In that division’s Repercharge round, Melbourne Beach
girl Jasset Umbel and Barbados’ Chelsea Tuach finished 1st and 2nd, giving us
an all-Rightside lineup that provides plenty of hope for the future of East
Coast female surfing. Of course, in the final Quincy ran away with the heat,
even though the girls immediately started jostling for position after the
buzzer. “We were never all sitting still out there,” Davis said. “All the girls
caught a lot of waves, and because of that, the heat went by really fast.”
Even though Tuach opened
with a 5.17 and a 7.27, Quincy quickly answered back, laying down a frontside
slash for an 8.17 and then combining several good bashes all the way to the
beach for a massive 8.83. That 17.00 heat total — the highest of the
entire event, Men’s, Women’s, or groms — allowed Quincy to combo the
entire field, earning her an iPad from Dragon and clinching her trip to Bells
Beach next year for the GromSearch International Championships. “It looked bad
from the beach, but when you got out there it was pretty fun,” Davis said. “I
really like Middles. It’s a fun wave, and it was cool to surf with all the
women and men here in Puerto Rico.”
Puerto Rican grom Mauro Diaz
performed well in Boys 14/Under, but going up against Parker Coffin, Koa Smith,
and Seth Moniz in his opening heat — probably the toughest non-final
exchange of the entire GromSearch National Champs — didn’t leave Mauro
much room for error. And although Cam Richards and Noah Schweizer made the
14/Under Repercharge round, Smith and Moniz overpowered both. And in the end,
Parker was too hot to handle, eliciting huge cheers from the beach and
high-fives from Brad Gerlach before announcing that he was on the hunt for
15-year-old girls after his big victory.
The Boys 12/Under division
featured some of the most impressive ripping of the event, with Jake Marshall
looking hot, Jacob Davis throwing down some legitimate man turns, and Seth Moniz
tossing up 360 airs, huge power hacks, and charging floaters. Stevie Pittman
failed to advance out of his opening round, while Cobie Gittner went to the
Repercharge and Dane Mackie made it to the final. But it was all Moniz all the
time in the last event of the contest, proving that Hawaiian roots almost
always lead to dominating performances.
THE PAIN: Cam
Richards felt the most pain for sure, as he looked like a shoe-in for the Bells
Beach trip after smoking his opening Boys/Under 16 heat. Maybe surfing two
divisions sapped some of his energy, but Cam looked out of sorts in the marquee
final and had to struggle to come back from a 4th-place hole. If his body
language was any indication after the heat, calling him pissed would be a
massive understatement.
THE (WO)MAN: After an explosion of East Coast female standouts in the early 2000s,
the last few years have seemed a little bleak for our wahine contingent. But
Quincy Davis is changing that impression one contest win at a time —
remember, as of press time, she still holds the distinction of earning the
highest heat total of the entire Rip Curl Pro Search event, and that’s
including Kelly, Dane, Jordy, and even Stephanie Gilmore. “I definitely can’t
be compared to them,” Quincy said. “I just caught a few rights out there, and
the last wave at the end gave me some confidence. I’m just so excited that I
get to go to Bells, because I’ve never been there.”
YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB: “One of
the most important things when you’re a young surfer is pushing your
performance levels by watching better surfing.” –Event MC Frank “The Voice”
Gonzalez, summing up the entire rationale behind holding the GromSearch in
conjunction with the Rip Curl Pro Search
“It looks more like
high-tide Sebastian Inlet out there than Middles.” –Volcom East Coast Marketing &
Promotions Manager Daniel Terry, less than stoked on the conditions, even as two
of his teamriders won their respective divisions
FINAL
RESULTS OF THE 2010 RIP CURL GROMSEARCH
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:
BOYS 16/UNDER 1. Koa Smith (HI), $500 and
trip to Bells Beach
2. Colin Moran (CA)
3. Cam Richards (SC)
4. Andrew Jacobson (CA)
GIRLS 16/UNDER 1. Quincy Davis (NY), $500
and trip to Bells Beach
2. Nikki Viesins (FL)
3. Chelsea Tuach (Barbados)
4. Jasset Umbel (FL)
BOYS 14/UNDER 1. Parker Coffin (CA), $500
2. Ian Gentil (HI)
3. Koa Smith (HI)
4. Seth Moniz (HI)
BOYS 12/UNDER 1. Seth Moniz (HI), $500
2. Jacob Davis (CA)
3. Jake Marshall (CA)
4. Dane Mackie (Barbados)
H20 OVERDRIVE MANEUVER OF THE EVENT Jacob Davis, $250
DRAGON HIGH HEAT TOTAL Quincy Davis, iPad
THE ROOM HIGH WAVE SCORE Parker Coffin, $500
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By Matt Pruett and Nick McGregor;
Photos by Matt Lusk
