SA Junior Champs is always a sterling affair. The best junior surfers from around our rainbow nation gathering upon the shores of Jeffreys Bay to duel it out for the honour of being called a South African junior champion. It’s a competitive affair. And rightfully so.

We’ve written a few articles breaking down each day’s action - but there were several unexpectedly great performances. These were homies who dropped harder hammers than we anticipated. 

To keep updated with everything hot and Happening in South African surf culture - Give Us A Follow on Instagram Here! And Facebook here.

Here are 5 Groms that Got Us Trippin’.

All images: Kody McGregor

Rory Dace

We’ve seen Rory Dace here and there, surfing around St. Francis and occasionally Supertubes. But we were completely unaware of Rory’s ability to lay it down like Beyoncé on the dance floor when the waves stood up in a more classic point break-like fashion. 

On Day 3 of the SA Junior Champs, the waves fired from dawn till dusk. A clean swell garnished the Lower Point lineup and Rory Dace greeted it like a corporal standing to attention. He revelled in the clean conditions drawing some of the most beautiful rail work of the entire event. Gorgeously refined carves. Holding that rail from top lip line till bottom trough. No pumps, no Huntington hops (thank the lord) simply the kinda surfing that would make the great Joel Parkinson smile like he was about to burn someone on the wave of the day at Snapper Rocks.

Adriel Wolmarans

In my younger years, I managed to acquire a job working for a University. The job was pretty straight forward, perhaps a bit too easy, but what drained the life out of me was the strict policy the university had towards adherence to often futile rules. In particular, showing up exactly on time every morning, leaving at 16:30 every day and taking an exactly 45 minute long lunch break. Even if your tasks were completed for the next three months, there you sat, a slave to a regulation which served no purpose. Anyway - when public holidays rolled round, you could enjoy them guilt free! And that’s what Adriel’s surfing is like. It’s like enjoying a mid-week public holiday while slogging away at a 9-5. 

Adriel placed 4th in the U18 girls final, but if the chips had fallen in her favour, she could’ve just as easily been vying for that 1st place position. Hopefully this ain’t her last year in U18, because we’d looove to see her give it another crack.

Cooper Smith

While Cooper Smith bowed out fairly early in the U14 boys division. His surfing enroute to the quarterfinals was positively noteworthy. Cheeky to say the least. It posesses a certain cocky rudeness. When you watch Cooper Smith surfing, it’s like listening to your favourite punk rock band. Punk music that’s fun and intelligent. Maybe like The Hives' song - Hate to say I told you so. Rude. Cocky. Fun. Yet intelligent and refined enough to be a radio station hit.

We’re excited to see what Cooper brings to the table next year. If he continues on the same trajectory, we’re bound for fireworks!

Otherwise, enjoy this here live clip of The Hives’ singing ‘Hate to Say I Told You So'.

Zia Hendricks

We all know and love Zia Hendricks. She’s as much a part of the SA Surfing community as Pipeline is to the North Shore. And Zia has always been a little shredder. But man has her surfing sky rocketed in the last few months. 

Perhaps it was that she was surfing on her home turf, or maybe she just had a bee in her bonnet, but Zia’s surfing was particularly exemplary at this year’s SA Junior Champs. Where many of the ladies were going for turns out on the open face, Zia went for clean off-the-lips in the critical section of the wave - and she did it with aplomb. Had she opted to wait for set waves instead of hunting around for insiders, dare we say she might have been fighting for one of the top three places in the finals of the U16 girls.     

Joel Gernetzky

Where did this grom come from? Do they have a factory down there in slum town where they produce groms on demand? “Hi there, I would like to order a grom that rips.” - “Sure, your grom will be ready for collection in three weeks time.” Yesterday, we didn’t know Joel, today he’s vying for national honours. Not only was Joel relatively unknown before SA Champs - he arrived with a certain confidence. A self belief. He approached heats not from a place of fear i.e. what he could lose but rather what could be gained. And it made for spectacular viewing - his surfing was explorative and unhinged. 

We’re excited to see what Joel brings to the table over the next couple of years. Very excited indeed.