Ocean Lancaster And Eliza Richardson Win 2025 Rip Curl GromSearch International Finals

Arthur Villar wouldn’t be very pleasant to surf against. 

Yesterday, he hit Stab High Bottlerockets rival Loci Cullen with a last-minute full-ro into the flats to steal his spot in the Rip Curl GromSearch semifinals. This morning, Jaime Vaselko had him on the ropes until Arthur swung back with a Kerrupt flip. It was easily the highest and most technical air of the event and — with Lee Wilson not on the panel — the judges chucked him a 9.13. 

Which is to say that he was looking like the child to beat heading into the final against the supremely consistent Ocean Lancaster.

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Meanwhile, on the girls’ side of the draw, Emily Jenkinson bested Carol Bastides in a low-scoring affair while Eliza Richardson chucked 12.33 points at Talia Tebb. 

The swell had picked up from yesterday, and with plenty of time to run the two remaining heats, organizers put the comp on hold through dead low tide. When it kicked back on, we saw an expression session featuring RC crew Molly Picklum, Tom Curren, Crosby Colapinto, and Justin Becret. And, not that it was for points/clout, but Lucas Skinner won. He won this event the past two years, but is already looking way closer to the CT level than anything else.  

Then it was Finals time. The wind started cranking offshore. The boys padded out first, and Ocean found an 8.33 for a two-turn combo. Arthur quickly answered back with a tube-turn combo, but Ocean had another 7.57 for two more of his turns. On both of his scores, Ocean generated the most revenue on his second turn — one was an end section hammer, and the other a fin release. For once, Arthur had no more last-minute heroics. 

The trend continued on the other side of the draw. Emily Jenkinson hunted tubes while Eliza sought to belt her way to scores, and the judges nodded to the latter. She finished with 12.57 points and a very high likelihood of her nose finding a sticker on it soon. 

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So, this year was swept by two Australians who surf way more powerfully than their ages should allow. If history repeats itself — and it tends to — these two will have to stand on a lot more podiums in the future.