Australia’s Xavier Huxtable And Hawaii’s Keala Tomoda-Bannert Win The 2018 GromSearch International Final
Raglan, New Zealand (Tuesday, May 5, 2018) – Today was a day that will go down in GromSearch history – 16 of the world’s best junior surfers battling it out in solid and powerful four-to-six-foot Manu Bay, posting 10-point rides and showing the world what the future of surfing looks like.
At the end of the competition it was Torquay’s Xavier Huxtable (AUS) and Kauai’s Keala Tomoda-Bannert (HAW) who came out on top, taking down the duo from the NSW Central Coast Finn Hill (AUS) and Kirra-Belle Olsson (AUS).
“I feel so good right now,” said Xavier Huxtable, after he took the win of the GromSearch International Final. Xavier is one of the first Victorian male surfers to take out an International Junior event, and that made the win all the sweeter. “It means so much to me to win this event against such talented surfers from all over the world.”
It wasn’t an easy road to the final, though. Xavier also had to surf through a highly talented Cole Houshmand (USA) in the semis, who is known for his progressive style in all types of waves, and in order to come out on top the Victorian had to post two massive scores. But he was up to the task, and by the end of the heat he had the first and only 10-point ride, combined with a 9.25 – a near perfect heat score of 19.25.
Hawaii’s Keala Tomoda-Bannert didn’t have an easy path to the title either, matching up against Brazilian talent Anne Dos Santos (BRA) in the semis and the promising Australian surfer Kirra-Belle Olsson (AUS).
“That was such a crazy day,” said Keala Tomoda-Bannert. “The surf was pumping, and there was a really strong current that made the paddle-out exhausting. But I’m so happy to win and I feel amazing to know that I surfed through girls like Anne, Kirra (Belle) and Piper (Harrison) (AUS). New Zealand has been an amazing experience, and I am going to be sad to leave!”
A massive thank you to all the competitors of the 2018 Rip Curl GromSearch International Final, and a huge congratulations to Xavier Huxtable and Keala Tomoda-Bannert.
GromSearch International Final – Final Heat Results – Men:
Xavier Huxtable (AUS) 17.8 def. Finn Hill (AUS) 15.3
GromSearch International Final – Final Heat Results – Women:
Keala Tomoda-Bannert (HAW) 16.7 def. Kirra-Belle Olsson (AUS) 15.3
Semi-Final Heat Results – Men:
SF1: Finn Hill (AUS) 16.15 def. Lucas Vicente (BRA) 15.7
SF2: Xavier Huxtable (AUS) 19.25 def. Cole Houshmand (USA) 16.4
Semi-Final Heat Results – Women:
SF1: Kirra-Belle Olsson (AUS) 17.1 def. Saffi Vette (NZ) 4.9
SF2: Keala Tomoda-Bannert (HAW) 18.7 def. Anne Dos Santos (BRA) 12.75
Open and U18: Patrick Langdon Dark
Women: Jo Dennison
Longboard: Elliot Dudley
U18 girls: Alys Barton
U12, U14 and U16 boys: Eli Perrins Davies
Women’s longboard: Georgina Lewtas
Masters and Grand Masters: Mark Vaughan
Kahuna: Jamie Bateman
Grand Kahuna: Colin Bright
U18 longboard Tom Horn
Congratulations to all the winner at the 2018 Caravan and Motorhome Club English National Surfing Championships supported by Korev Lager
Fun surf and sometimes sunny weather.
The elite of English surfing descended upon the blue ocean and expansive sands of Watergate Bay in Cornwall over this last bank holiday. With 170+ entries across 19 divisions, from 8 years old to mid 50’s, shortboard to longboard, the event had it all and the forecast was delivering the goods! With a consistent swell predicted to extend throughout the event, light winds and sunshine, could this be to good to be true? Well, it’s England, so yes of course it was, so as the thick sea fog engulfed the coastlines the competition began and the surfers rose to the challenge.
Competition was fierce throughout day one and day two as twin peaks ran simultaneously to give the surfers their 20 minutes to shine amongst the fog, with half of each heat progressing and half exiting. Days were made and dreams were shattered as surfers competed to make their respective finals in search of the coveted English champion titles. Event partners provided the relaxed competition areas with DJ’s for entertainment, sponsors on hand to engage and enjoy the company of the friendly surfers and deck chairs for the bank holiday vibes. The event also gave an annual opportunity for our community and members to come together and engage with Surfing England and enjoy the opportunities we bring to celebrate our sport.
Finals day was just like any good swell, it built and delivered, as each division took to the water and put their skills to work, navigating the sea, exploring the line up and laying down their best manoeuvres in the 3-4ft high tide pealing waves of Cornwall. Then before long the premiere women’s division open surfers took to the water and Lucy Campbell fought off her competitors to retain her title. The men’s open final was described by some after as one of the most progressive, high quality and electrifying finals to come out of England in decades, and sure most on the beach would agree. As Reubyn Ash took to the air, Will Bailey power hacked, Luke Dillon chucked buckets and Miles Lee-Hargreaves rotated above the lip to the joy of all watching, the judges had non stop action to officiate over and in the end Reubyn took the win to retain his champion title.
Surfing England would like to thank all who came, all who surfed, the staff and officials, the sponsors and the supporters, for being a part of a joyous event to remember.
Reubyn Ash is now three times English champion.
RESULTS
Mens Open sponsored by Stance
1 Reubyn Ash 2 Luke Dillon 3 Will Bailey 4 Miles Lee-Hargreaves
Womens Open sponsored by Jolly Brown
1 Lucy Campbell 2 Ellen Harding 3 Emily Currie 4 Tassy Swallow
Under 18 Girls sponsored by O’Neill
1 Lily Pierce 2 Amy Dyer 3 Mischa Maguire 4 Lily Mandeville
Under 18 Boys sponsored by O’Neill
1 Seth Morris 2 Will Gale 3 Stanley Norman 4 Kamron Matthews
Under 12 Boys sponsored by 110% Surfing Techniques
1 Lukas Skinner 2 Heath Giilespie 3 Nikita Petrov 4 Arthur Randell
Under 12 Girls sponsored by 110% Surfing Techniques
1 Lauren Sandland 2 Eva Blackford 3 Belle Betteridge 4 Sienna Morison
Under 14 Girls
1 Tegan Blackford 2 Asha Sykes
Under 14 Boys
1 Sam Hearn 2 Max Miller Cooley 3 Alex Townsend 4 Kieron Smith
Boys Longboard Under 18 sponsored by Gul
1 Jordan Zervas 2 Lloyd Stein 3 Barnaby Innes 4 Arthur Randell
Girls Longboard Under 18 sponsored by Gul
1 Emily Wells 2 Stella Briggs 3 Tegan Blackford 4 Annie Young
Womens Masters
1 Jenny Pendlebury 2 Andrea Lawrence 3 Ingrid Morrison
Mens Masters
1 Rob Watson 2 Sam Smart 3 Joel Gray 4 Andrew Stone
Womens Open Longboard sponsored by Gul
1 Emily Currie 2 Beth Leighfield 3 Jenny Briant 4 Tina Beresford
Mens Open Longboard sponsored by Gul
1 Adam Griffiths 2 Sam Bleakley 3 Ben Howey 4 Lewis Stritch
Under 16 Girls sponsored by O’Neill
1 Francesca Sayer 2 Bonita Whitelock 3 Iris Tanner 4 Esmee Gregorius 5 Bo Niblett
Under 16 Boys sponsored by O’Neill
1 Will Masterman 2 Maximilian Hudson 3 Sol Hawkins 4 Noah Capps
Mens Seniors
1 Josh Ward 2 Joss Ash 3 Luke Embleton 4 Adam Alexander Parkinson
Veterans Open
1 Mike Young 2 Roger Knight 3 David Gander 4 Darren Burrett
The Olympics, we don’t need it in my view. We have Jaws, Mavs, Nazare, Chopes, Pipe. We a lifestyle everyone is enviable of, we have very cool representatives, way way cooler than football players… So why do we need to constantly chase mainstream acceptance? Mo money? It’s not everything.
Anyway, if you are chasing an Olympic dream, fair play. BUT if you really want to engage the mainstream, it won’t be on a Ranch Type wave pool – mainstream don’t get subtle hand jives to increase tube time, they don’t get 15 half tags to the pool liner. What they get, and snowboarding proved, is air. Not a one foot oop that wouldn’t raise and eyebrow on a Brazilian beach. Proper air ala snowboard halfpipes.
Mainstream get aerial acrobatics. They can watch it with goldfish like attention spans. Spin to win. In one moment of sublime skill Seth Moniz just showed what they would get.
Most surfers of course would love to get barrels all day. But a mainstream TV audience… History has shown what works – big waves. And as you can’t put big waves in the Olympics, basically this it.
So as the diesel dust settles from the Surf Ranch wave train (hope it wasn’t built by VW) a new wave making tech was launched which looks like it just made the WSL Olympic dream wave obsolete.
The question you have to ask as a wavepool owner is what price surfers would pay to surf your wave, how many waves they expect in a session, and the gap between rides they are happy to wait. As a guide Surf Snowdonia works. It’s been fully booked for a long time, six surfers on the advanced wave – three per side, for an hour works. As we saw last night Surf Ranch.. well it takes a while between waves. And it’s one sided, so it will hold three surfers per hour. If you’re a businessman and you work that out on a return on investment you’re looking mega bucks per surfer per sessions to repay.
So when the Cove popped up you can see why surfers and business men took note. Now there’s this thing. A controllable, multi wave, variable concept.
As entertaining as brief moments of the Founders Cup were, it’s an elite wave only the rich, or fortunate, will get to surf. This thing offers more chance for more of us to join in the fun.
