Highly Anticipated Rip Curl GromSearch Nears

The first of two events on the highly anticipated Rip Curl GromSearch takes place in less than a month at Gisborne's Wainui Beach (3-4 October). The country's best grommets have been eagerly awaiting the Rip Curl GromSearch series all winter and there is no doubt their level of enthusiasm will make for an explosive two days of competitive surfing .

The Rip Curl GromSearch culminates in a national final where the winner of the under 16 boys and girls divisions win an all expense paid trip to compete at the International GromSearch Final alongside the prestigious World Tour event The Rip Curl Pro held at Bell's Beach, Australia. The world's biggest surfing super stars attend the Rip Curl Pro and just being there to witness their surfing is mind blowing let alone competing in the famous Bells Beach surf.

To reach the National Final of the Rip Curl GromSearch series held in Raglan Feb 2010, surfers will need to finish in the top two places of their respective under 16 divisions to secure a spot amongst the country's four best junior surfers.

Adding to the pressure cooker atmosphere at Gisborne will be the naming of the New Zealand Junior Surfing Team shortly after the event. With the World Junior Championships being held in our backyard at Piha in January, New Zealand's best young talent will want to show everyone the progression they have made over winter.

The under 16 divisions will be complemented by the girls and boys under 14 and under 12 divisions. While a trip across the ditch is not on offer, these groms will be more than excited about getting back in the water to compete not to mention catching up with their friends from all over New Zealand.

No one walks away from the Rip Curl GromSearch empty handed, every competitor receives a goodie bag packed with giveaways from sponsors including an issue of Kiwi Surf Magazine and the latest Ben Harper and Relentless Seven album courtesy of EMI. Along with this Rip Curl will be putting up massive prize pools for each and every division.

This year Rip Curl welcome the addition of a voting system where, with the help of New Zealand's leading surf forecasting website surf2surf.com everyone will be able to check out footage of the best waves during the event and vote for who they believe should take out the best wave of the event award. This new concept will be a first for New Zealand and will create a dynamic interactive element to the event.

New Zealand's leading radio station 'The Edge' will be amongst the action at this year's GromSearch series. The Edge's Road Runners will be bringing the party to the event running live promotions and spectator giveaways over both days of competition.

Local Gisborne grommet Korbin Hutchings will be contesting all three boys divisions at the first event of the series and is frothing on getting back into the competition vest.

"It will good to catch up with my mates at the comp" commented 12-year-old Hutchings. "I haven't competed for ages. The last comp was in Aussie in July".
When told about the best waves of the event being posted on the web for surfers to vote on, Hutchings had this to say "That will be mean, I hope I surf good enough to get some waves up there myself".

A month into spring the water is still rather frigid in Gisborne but Hutchings talked of some beautiful weather recently as well as nice waves over winter. The groms will have to keep their fingers crossed for more of the same in one month's time.

Check out the date for the upcoming event as well as the second event of the Rip Curl GromSearch scheduled for Piha later in the year.

Rip Curl GromSearch Event 1 - Gisborne, 3-4 October 2009

Rip Curl GromSearch Event 2 - Piha Beach, Auckland, 5-6 December 2009