Rusty

Eli Steele

Clean waves and great surfing on day 2 at the Rusty Gromfest at Lennox Head.

Saturday July 10, 2010: Lennox Head NSW Australia: Day two at the Rusty Gromfest saw much cleaner conditions with sunny skies and offshore winds and this assembly of Australia and many of the world's best young surfers thrived in the better conditions

West Australian surfers have been prominent on the opening two days here and again today with Margaret River pair Creed McTagggart and Bronte Macaulay both impressive winners in their 16 year and under divisions.

Both have been attending the Rusty Gromfest for a number of years and are keen to notch up a win at this prestigious event given this is their final year!

"I placed 4th last year here and I'm keen to try and win this year for sure," said McTaggart.

"I won last week on the Gold Coast at the Occy event and I feel really in good rhythm ao it would be good to win again- this is a great event and to be a part of the winning list would be special," added Creed.

"Bronte Macaulay took advantage of some great left peeling waves this morning and posted the morning's highest scoring ride with an excellent 8.25 for a series of very powerful and committed bottom to top turn combinations.

Sunshine Coast surfers continued to impress today, lead by Eli Steele and Harry Bryant.  Steele demonstrated his power on face abilities by progressing through to the quarter finals in the 16 Boys, placing 2nd in his four man heat behind the events number one seed, Hirota Arai from Japan.

Earlier Steele also showed us his aerial abilities by winning through to the final of the Kerrazy Airshow Invitational, an event directed by probably the world's greatest aerialist in Josh Kerr.

Steele pulled the biggest aerial in his qualifying heat of this unique specialty event which is judged solely by Kerr.

"To perform aerials for Josh Kerr is really special - the final will be amazing because some of the international surfers seem really good at pulling aerials - I'm looking forward to the final but I'm also really keen to keep progressing to the final in the 16's division as well" said Steele who will be joined by fellow Sunshine Coast surfer Kai Hing in the aerial six man final late today.

Sydney surfer Cooper Chapman scored the day's highest scoring ride with an outstanding 9 point ride to advance to the quarter finals of the 16 Boys and Cooper is also highly fancied in the Kerrazy Airshow final.

Super aerialist Josh Kerr will introduce his “Kerrazy Airshow Invitational” to this year’s Rusty Gromfest which begins in less than one weeks time at Lennox Head on NSW’s surf rich far north coast.

Who better than Josh Kerr to hand pick a group of surfers from the competition and free surfing sessions to surf in this specialized Kerrazy Airshow Invitational session?

The session will include Nixon prizes to the value of $3000 so expect to see massive aerials in the quest for a slice of the Nixon prize packs!

Widely regarded as the most progressive surfer in the world, Kerr will be at the Rusty Gromfest to oversee this thrilling addition which is certain to excite all these energetic young surfers.

With most of Australia’s best young surfers of 16 years and under heading to the idyllic northern NSW coast the Rusty Gromfest will again showcase fast and futuristic surfing.

This is probably the world’s most famous gathering of elite young surfers and over 15 years talent has built an honour role the envy of all “grom” events which includes surfers like Mick Fanning, Stephanie Gilmore, Bede Durbidge Chelsea Hedges, Owen Wright and Jessi Miley-Dyer to name just a few of the those who have gone on to esteemed professional surfing careers.

This year’s list of entries includes surfers who already have impressive reputations like Sarah Mason (Cabarita/NSW) who currently leads the Australasian Pro Junior Series and recently took down ASP World Champion Stephanie Gilmore in a world tour event in New Zealand!

Then there’s exciting youngsters like Michael Wright (Lennox Head), Jack Robinson (Margaret River), Cooper Chapman (Narrabeen), Kai Hing (Sunshine Coast) and Harrison Mann (Torquay).

That is a small sample of the known talents in the field, there’s many more and then there’s the new emerging surfers who arrive at the Rusty oblivious to their fellow competitors reputations, skilled and ready to take on anyone.

Other changes to this year’s event sees the 16 boys division catering for more surfers (80) than last year thanks to a round one Pro Junior style format. Round one will see 32 surfers looking to place first or second and get the opportunity to face the top 48 seeds in round two.

Australia’s and many of the world’s best young 16 and under surfers were greeted to large 2m surf along with cold offshore winds for day one of the Rusty Gromfest at Lennox Head.

The solid waves brought out some big performances and powerful moves were aplenty as the 16 and 14 year and under Boy and Girl divisions completed their round one heats.

Coming from the famous Margaret River region, West Australia’s Creed McTaggart is no stranger to powerful surf and he relished today’s conditions posting one of the day’s most impressive wins.

“It was tough paddling through the close out sets and just holding position out the back, but the waves are good when you pick up the right one, the clean wave faces allow plenty of scoring opportunities” said Creed after his win. “I definitely prefer larger conditions as to small and apparently it’s going to stay solid throughout the event so that’s good!”

Other impressive performances were from Jake Sylvester (Newcastle), Matt Banting (Port Macquarie), Dylan Cummings (Central Coast NSW) and Nick Edgerton (Wurtulla/Qld) who all won their opening round heats easily. Matt Banting, with a heat tally on his top two scoring rides of 16.05 along with a top wave score of 8.9 (out of a possible 10) was the day’s highest scoring winner.

In the 14 Boys, local surfer Michael Wright charged the larger set waves to easily win his heat and later his high profile sister Tyler, who is current Australian and World Junior surfing champion as well as a multiple Rusty Gromfest champion, easily won her opening round 16 Girls heat. Other impressive winners in the girls division included Sarah Mason (Coolangatta), Kirstin Ogden (Byron Bay), Nikki Van Dijk (Phillip Island Victoria) and Cody Klien (Kingscliff/NSW).

While the day was unusually cold for Northern NSW, the waves remained good all day and tomorrow forecasts indicate even larger surf with offshore winds, great conditions and more winter sun!

Organizers will make a call on conditions early tomorrow morning at Lennox Head.

Daily press releases will be forwarded from Rusty Gromfest around 3pm each day.

Results, news and press releases will be constantly updated on www.surfingaustralia.com

About The Rusty Gromfest:
Rusty Gromfest is the original and most esteemed grommet event in Australia.
In its 14th year this event has enormous history in revealing great young surfers – Past winners include now great surfers like Mick Fanning, Stephanie Gilmore, Bede Durbidge, Julian Wilson and these are just a small sample. Rusty Gromfest brings together Australia and many of the world’s best young surfers. Internationals surfing this year have come from Tahiti, South Africa, Hawaii, New Zealand, USA, Ireland, England, Indonesia and Japan. Rusty Gromfest is made possible thanks to the support of Rusty, FCS, Otis, Waves Magazine, Bandit FM, NBN and The Northern Star.

In its 14th year, the Rusty Gromfest is the most prestigious 16 and under boys and girls surfing event on the globe! To claim a Gromfest title opens a world of opportunities, as it has done for past winners like Mick Fanning and Steph Gilmore...

Gromfest 2009 is set to take on a new challenge with a change to the event's format. Contest organizers have taken a leaf out of the ASP Event Handbook and will adopt the theory of shorter events to fit in with available swell cycles to greatly improve the odds of good surf throughout the competition. The event will run for 3 days with a 5 day waiting period from the 10th to the 14th of July to maximize the best possible conditions for competitors. However, the contest format of running 2 simultaneous heats on 2 separate banks will remain the same with the finals being held on one bank.

Entries fill fast so make sure you do not delay returning your entry form ASAP as you don't want to miss out on your chance to compete in the most prestigious under 16, 14, 12 boys and girls junior surfing event.

Click here to download an entry form!

Bali's best groms shredding at Canggu on March 16, 2008