Quiksilver’s King of the Groms

All photos by Corey Wilson

Quiksilver King Of The Groms beach day.

Seth Moniz tags the inside bowl for good measure.

John Mel, using the onshore wind to his advantage.

Overall winner, Daniel Glenn, hanging with Kalani David.

This fin-throw air reverse won the award for highest score of the day, a 9.26.

Hiroto's claim. It almost resembles an Olympic gymnast after a series of acrobatics. Wait, yes it does.

Sand won't get in the way of John Mel and his Kit-Kat bar. Perseverance found on land and in the water.

Huntington Beach in the summer time.

Jake Marshall's backhand exclamation point.

Hiroto Oohara, Kei Kobayashi and friends. Kei, why don't you share your rice with your friends?

Kalani David and his dad talk heat strategy.

Luke Gordon launched a couple sick backside airs in search of the skin.

Shane Beschen was on hand coaching his sons Noah and Koda.

Groms wear fullsuits even when it's trunkable. Will that ever change?

Kids these days will launch off of anything in front of them.

Summer is here and the groms couldn't be happier.

Pre-heat claim practice. Reach for the sky.

Barron Mamiya going for skin in the shorebreak.

Sand stands.

Quite the concerned grom. Lighten up, you won your heat.

Kalani David, backside fin ditch.

Battle for the crown.

Jake Marshall won a couple hundred bucks and skipped town.

Most of America's surfing future is in this photo. Or, is this an outtake from "Echo Beach"?

The King Of The Groms: Daniel Glenn. He's king, but where's his crown?

 

On Monday, June 25, the best 16 and under surfers from around the nation met at 9th St. in Huntington Beach to battle for the crown — to be the Quiksilver KING of the Groms. The winner received $100 for each heat win and an all expense paid trip to France for the Global Finals of KOTG held during the Quiksilver Pro France WT in September.

The contest ran normal 15-minute, six mini-man heats. However, it was different in that only one wave was scored and in order for that wave to count the kid had to claim it. Like hands up, fist pump, cowboy pistols style claim. The top-scoring surfer from each heat was put in the heat following the next and if the kid kept winning, the kid kept going. With clean 2-3 foot conditions on tap, the summer-stoked kids lit up the Huntington beachbreak. Jake Marshall won some heats, Hiroto Oohara did as well. Tails were thrown and double arm claims were flown.

New Smyrna’s Daniel Glenn won the first heat of the day, and the third, the fifth, seventh, and ninth. 5 skins (what they call racked up heat wins). This tally held up through the entire day and Daniel Glenn took the crown. Five hundred bucks, what are you going to do with it? “It’s going straight in the bank,” laughs Glenn. “I’m super psyched to go to France. That was one of my goals at the beginning of the year and now I am going. I’m stoked.” And you’d be stoked, too, if you were crowned King.

Source: http://www.surfingmagazine.com/photos/quiksilvers-king-of-the-groms/

Doug Henry Torlief Hansen Mike Kiedrowski Mike LaRocco