iLembe’s young surfers claimed four gold medals at last weekend’s Rip Curl GromSearch event at Dairy Beach in Durban.
Maxine Kauffman and Nathan Tayler claimed victory in the premier U16 girls and boys events, while their younger counterparts Ella van der Made and Levi Vosloo claimed the U12 girls and boys titles.
iLembe Surf Riders dominated the competition, winning half of the events, while a host of other podium positions were claimed too.
The GromSearch series draws strong fields, making the achievements all the more impressive.
Surfed over Friday and Saturday last week, the contest enjoyed great conditions at Dairy Beach which allowed the surfers to show off their full bags of tricks.
It was the youngsters who went first and Van der Made set the tone for finals day with a dominant win in the U12 girls event.
The contest was firmly in her hands after posting wave scores of 7.67 and 6.57 and the chasing pack could not keep up.
She won by more than two points over eThekwini’s Brin Jarvis, while iLembe surfers Lily Jameson (3rd), Pippa Wang (4th) and Lila Prinsloo (5th) rounded out the final finishers.
Vosloo built on the momentum from his female teammates when taking on the boys side of the U12 category.
Photo: Dave Lindemann Photography.
After breezing through his semi-final in first position, Vosloo faced off against fellow iLembe surfer Tyler Balfour in a back-and-forth battle in the final.
Balfour grabbed a strong early wave but Vosloo’s two-wave 6.67 and 2.70 punch would prove just enough for overall victory, by the narrowest of margins, just 0.04 points!
iLembe’s Jackson Myers finished fourth.
It was then the elder statesmen of the juniors who took to the water, with Kauffman taking on a packed U16 girls final which included Ballito Pro round of 32 surfer, Louise Lepront.
Kauffman kept her cool after two small first waves and hit back with a 5.0 and 4.43 to claim victory by over a point ahead of Maya Malherbe.
Tayler was the last iLembe winner and saved his best surfing for the final after going through in second place in both the quarter- and semi-finals.
After a great season last year, Tayler is comfortable in big moments and delivered with waves of 5.77 and 4.43 to take the win over Matt Canning.
Elsewhere, iLembe’s Lila Aszalos (2nd U14 girls), Coco Clark (3rd U14 girls), Sean Tayler (2nd U14 boys), Levi Vosloo (3rd U14 boys), Keira Fletcher (2nd U18 girls) and Catherine Jacob (3rd U18 girls) claimed podium finishes.
Find a full list of results at liveheats.com.
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