22-04-2025
Lepront, Van Greunen triumph in Rip Curl Cup
Luc Lepront and Tasha van Greunen were crowned the Rip Curl Cup champions in Port Alfred on Monday, both banking R22,000 for their first places.
The contest, presented by The Royal St Andrews Hotel, featured many of the country's top surfers, a selection of young crew members and a few old-guard surfers.
In the women's final, Cape Town's Van Greunen was in fine form.
She surfed only three waves in the final, but two were good enough to put her in the lead.
Anastasia Venter showed flashes of brilliance during the weekend of surfing, but couldn't do enough to snatch victory from Van Greunen, who was a stoked winner.
Louise Lepront was third, with Remi Fourie fourth.
'I wasn't really sure what the score of the other girls was, but I knew that I had two good waves under the belt,' Van Greunen said.
'I just kept it steady and held onto the lead.
'I will use the money to put it back into my surfing and get to the next couple of events in SA.
The men's final was an insane display of competitive surfing by Luc Lepront from Scottburgh.
Lepront smashed two Port Alfred walls, back-to-back with a series of searing backhand turns, to put two scores well into the excellent range on the board.
An 8.5 and a 9.33, with a heat total of 17.83.
Within the first five minutes of the heat, he put all the other finalists into combination situations.
The rest of the finalists, Matt Canning, Luke Slijpen and Luke Thompson, were left chasing, but with minutes ticking away, they were all still in combination situations, needing two new waves apiece.
Slijpen was looking stronger, with a 7.17 score and a 6.50 backup, but it wasn't enough to get out of the combination situation.
As the clock ticked out, it was Luc in front, with Slijpen second, Canning third and a disappointed Thompson in fourth.
'The heat couldn't have panned out any better,' a stoked Lepront said.
'I got on the first one, and then I got another absolute bomb, my personal best two waves of the contest.
'I was patient on the first one, and I knew it would get bigger down the line, so I held back for a bit on it.
'I didn't get my timing right in my previous heats, but I got it right at the end, in the final.
The prize money is going straight towards my trip to Hawaii!'
Final results:
Men: 1 Luc Lepront R22,000, 2 Luke Slijpen R10,000, 3 Matt Canning R5,000, 4 Luke Thompson R2,500
Women: 1 Natasha Van Greunen R22,000, 2 Anastasia Venter R10,000, 3 L ouise Lepront R5,000, 4 Remi Fourie R2,500 — Surfing SA
