CHELSEA TUACH continues to ride the wave of success – even outside these shores.
Surfing’s teen sensation has returned to Barbados after finishing third at the Rip Curl Gromsearch Grand Final in Puerto Rico over the weekend.
An invitation only event open to the region’s best teenagers, the Rip Curl Gromsearch takes place alongside the Rip Curl Pro Search – a world tour event that brought the world’s top surfers to the shores of Puerto Rico.
But the 14-year-old Tuach was never outclassed, dominating the semi-finals with a couple of high-scoring rides before getting the bronze to become the youngest Barbadian female surfer to have a podium finish outside the Caribbean region.
This was after the transcendent teen narrowly missed out on advancing to the third round of the International Surfing Association’s World Surfing Games – the “Olympics” of surfing – just last month in Punta Hermosa, Peru.
Impressing the international judges with a strong backside attack in the first round, Tuach amassed the eighth highest heat total of the 54 women who surfed this round to advance to Repechage Round 2.
“The waves were really big and difficult to catch [and] in these conditions, I needed to have a bigger board,” said Tuach of exploits in Peru.
“But this has been a great experience for me to surf with the world’s best women. I am so grateful to my sponsors, especially Red Bull, the National Sports Council and the Barbados Olympic Association who all made my participation at this year’s event possible”.
Local Dane Mackie also did Barbados proud in Puerto Rico, finishing fourth in the 12-and-under age group while facing a stacked field of talented young surfers at the Gromsearch Grand Final. (PR)
