Kai Stubbs, from Scarborough, showed nerves of steel in the under-14 boys’ final of the Rip Curl Grom Search held at Long Beach, Kommetjie, only catching two waves in the 20 minutes allocated.
Still, he stuck to his game plan of waiting for the good lefts, and his two-wave tally was enough to see him to victory.
Some powerful backhand off-the-tops and clean finishes saw him win his first victory in the Rip Curl series.
Ashbjorn Gwenin (second), Loghann Tilsley (third) and Adam Faclier (fourth) had been charging the entire contest but were all out-surfed by Stubbs.
“Finally, I got a win,” said a very stoked Stubbs, celebrating his victory. “I only got the two waves, but luckily they were enough.“