Young surfers to make waves in Jersey for Rip Curl competition

Friday 13 April 2018

Rip Curl is once again the lookout for the world's best surfer and will be stopping in Jersey in June to see local talent make waves in St. Ouen's Bay.

The Channel Islands Surfing Federation (CISF) has been chosen to host one of 15 events as part of the brand's GromSearch series.

The Rip Curl GromSearch, one of the biggest events for surfing youngsters, includes boys’ and girls’ divisions in 16-and-under, 14-and-under, and 12-and-under age groups.

In each event, surfers receive points for their results, these count towards a National GromSearch ratings system. The best under-16 boys and girls from each country will go to the World Finals, which will be held in "one of the best spots in the world" to be revealed a few weeks before the event. Launched in Australia in 1999, the GromSearch series has helped "unearthed the next generations of surfing stars and is now seen by most of the kids as one of the best and funnest events in the world."

The 2018 Rip Curl GromSearch series kicked off in Tartane, Martinique, in February. It is set to travel to 15 spots in seven European countries: France, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands. 

Video: The GromSearch has helped "unearthed the next generations of surfing stars."

This will be the first time that Jersey hosts one of the GromSearch events. The event on 2 and 3 June will also mark the first leg of the UK qualifier event, which will include a weekend in Croyde Bay in Devon and in Watergate Bay in Cornwall.

John Harvey, Chief Operations Officer at the Channel Islands Surfing Federation (CISF), said: "Rip Curl approached us and asked us to kick off the season.We are the first of three events in the UK. Surfers have to do at least three events to be qualified. This means that local surfers could do the three UK events and be able to rank in the GromSearch Series."

The CISF was launched 18 months ago to help surfers in Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark get on the world stage and be more in the spotlight. Affiliated to the International and European Surfing Federations, it aims to make surfing in the Channel Islands more professional and raise the profile of the sport. Despite being relatively young, the Federation, which recently hosted the Jersey Open Championships, still attracted the attention of the GromSearch organisers.

Pictured: St. Ouen's Bay will be the theatre of the Jersey GromSearch competition.

For Mr Harvey, it could be explained by the quality of local judges. He explained: "The level of judging here is very good. We are lucky to have people who are willing to give their time to be judges. It is very demanding, you are staring at the water for hours. We have people who have invested money to train with coaches from the UK. They also get refreshers every now and then. As a judge, you are always learning. For example, recently we have learned about adaptive surfing and the judging criteria that goes with it.

"Judging is open to interpretation, everyone has a different perception. But it is important that it is carried out at the highest standard. If the surfers are confident in the judging, they will be happy to compete. If they are not confident that there will be a fair judging, they won't take part."

Pictured: Launched 18 months ago, the Channel Islands Surfing Federation currently has 800 members.

While registration hasn't opened yet for the Jersey event, Mr Harvey says the CISF has already received a few enquiries from UK surfers. He said: "We have already received some interest. Competitors have asked us to help them find accommodation. We think that about 20 kids from Jersey could compete. Some of them are already really excited about it. Because the competition falls during the May half term, a few of the local surfers have decided to cancel their holidays or shorten them to be able to compete.

"It is geared at the high end of performing surfers, so it may not appeal to all types of surfers. But we hope local kids take it up, even if it is just for the experience, because this sort of competition does not happen often and it would give them great exposure. We also expect to have quite a high uptake from UK surfers as well as French ones, as we are so close to France."

The more competitors sign up, the better for the CISF as they will be retaining all entry fees. Rip Curl will be funding all the prizes, trophies and goodie bags for the competitors and will also bring over flags and banners to spruce up the Bay on the day. This means that once all the judges have been paid, any profits made on the entry fees will go to buy kits for the members or to send local surfers to competitions in Europe or as far as Japan.

Pictured: Theo Cabot, one of the many local young hopeful surfers.

Mr Harvey hopes that the competition will also be marking the start of a renewal for the Jersey surfing scene. As the CISF website says, both Jersey and Guernsey have a rich surfing heritage with the Jersey Surfboard Club being the oldest recognised surf club in Europe established in 1959 and the Guernsey Surf Club following shortly after in 1964. "Historically, surfing was a big thing in Jersey," says Mr Harvey "We had the Oxbow Longboard European Qualifier in 1994 and the European Surfing Championships in 2000 and 2009, but then it quieted down.

"We would like to reinvent Jersey as a place to compete at high level. Competition like the GromSearch bring tourism, they help raise more awareness about surfing locally and they bring more revenue. We hope that we will have more people coming to view it too. We want to make it look as professional as possible so that it look like it's worth something paying attention to."

Lead picture: Claudia Cosgrove, Byron Stolte and Max Bennett.