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Dragon’s own, Taylor Clark is on fire. After surfing into a few finals this year at the NSSA Nationals, he kicks off to a good start at the first event at the Surfing America Prime event in Oceanside, CA this last weekend. He made a double final appearance in both the 18/U and 16/ U finals. Not bad for being 14-years-old. This kid has a bright future in competitive surfing.

When it rains, it pours- or so the saying goes. Just ask Evan Geiselman. These days, he doesnt leave the house without an umbrella. After a string of major junior professional victories, the New Smyrna Beach native continued his competitive terror by scalping the final regional stop of the Rip Curl GromSearch presented by H2O Overdrive at New Smyrna Beach Inlet in the dirty South of FL.

Despite small yet contestable conditions, the boy held homecourt by ousting a stacked field of talent in the Boys 16/U final, as well as executing a flawless Passion Pop en route to winning the H2O Overdrive Maneuver of the event. $200 cold, hard cash and a hometown victorynot a bad little Saturday for EG.

I just love surfing comps at my home break. This is where I grew up, stated Evan shortly after the victory. Its so easy to stay relaxed in this environment. I have never landed a passion pop in a heat, but was in Mexico last week and did a few so I thought I would see what I could do. I guess I got lucky.

Look for EG to represent for the Right Coast at the GromSearch National Final, which will run in conjunction with the Rip Curl Pro Search in Puerto Rico October 29.

Double finalist Noah Schweitzer saw his ironman efforts pay dividends, as he nabbed the victory in the Boys 14 and under. Surfing technical precision, Noah put a strangle hold on the final after locking in 2 big scores.

In the Boys 12 and under, Cobie Gitmer edged out Dane Mackie for the big win, while in the Girls 16/under, Florida girl Nikki Viesins opened with a big score and didnt look back, as she scored the W.

New Smyrna Beach marks the last stop for the Rip Curl GromSearch presented by H20 Overdrive. The 2010 season would not be possible without the support of all sponsors H2O Overdrive, Dragon Alliance, Power Balance, Bubble Gum Wax, Wahoos and all media partners Surfing Magazine, Surfline.com and Fuel TV.

Make sure to stay tuned to www.ripcurl.com/gromsearch for all post event coverage and Rip Curl GromSearch Nationals announcements.

OFFICIAL RESULTS OF STOP #4, 2010 RIP CURL GROMSEARCH FUELED BY H2O OVERDRIVE, NEW SMRYNA BEACH, FLORIDA:

BOYS 16/under:
1.    Evan Geiselman
2.    Keto Burns
3.    Noah Schweitzer
4.    Tanner Strohmenger

BOYS 14/under:
1.    Noah Schweitzer
2.    Logan Hayes
3.    Dane Mackie
4.    Corey Howell

BOYS 12/under:
1.    Cobie Gittner
2.    Dane Mackie
3.    Luke Marks
4.    Stevie Pittman

GIRLS 16/under:
1.    Nikki Viesins
2.    Quincy Davis
3.    Bailey Nagy
4.    Darsha Pigford

H20 Overdrive Maneuver of the Event:
Evan Geiselman- $100

Dragon High Heat Total:
Noah Schweitzer (19.7) - $50
Quincy Davis (18.5)- $50

Change is in the wind here at Dragon South Pacific…. Out with the old in with the new…. marketing managers we mean… and with the changing of the guard comes a trip to Sydney, why not?  We visited Waves, Surfing World, Transmoto, Transfer, Stab, our favourite PR Company Sweaty Betty and just when we were running low on energy we went to Red Bull.   What a day!   Thanks to all the lovely media for making it special.

36 hours of plains trains and automobiles.
Destination Las Trancas Chile to rip Nevados de chillan.

Situated in a beautiful volcanic valley Nevados offers transition galore with plenty of steeps to go around.
The scenery is breath taking, the people are friendly and the crowds are minimal.
Travel is a easy as long as you have a bit of spainglish to throw around.

Chris Benchetler is best known for snorkeling through deep snow, floating big 360’s in the backcountry and making skiing look effortless.

While hanging out in South America Mr. Benchetler chatted with Freeskier about his recent engagement, summer, pro model ski and drawing with crayons. For more of this interview click <<HERE>>.

Once upon a time a cute little vodka guzzling teen from Winnipeg, Manitoba figured out she liked to snowboard. Six years later I would meet this young lady. At this point she had a rebuilt wrist, two new ACL’s, a strict Vegan diet, a clean liver and an unbelievably chipper Canadian personality. The personal and professional life of Darrah Reid-McLean may have been full of roller coaster like obstacles, but whatever elements helped form this young lady one thing is certain, she is now one of the brightest young stars of female snowboarding. With her tween dreams of Olympic Gymnastics dashed and her hard partying ways largely behind her Darrah is now filming parts, climbing the popularity ladder and impressing the shit out of every boy that gets a chance to see her ride.

For the full interview click <<HERE>>.

This summer continues to be un-summer-like…..which is the point down here, I suppose.   Yet, the relentless lack of girls in bikinis is beginning to take it’s toll.  Thank God the skiing has been good!

During the first two weeks of August a big high pressure system came in and sat over us for about a week.  We used this opportunity to get deep into the backcountry.  Two different groups head to refugio Frey (a backcountry hut here) and got after it for a few days each.  The rest of us were doing long single day backcountry trips from the top of the ski resort everyday.  The temps stayed cold and good snow was found on all the south and east facing aspects with 141 degrees SSE being the money spot.  I’m now sorta obsessed with this number and constantly bust out my compass to test potential backcountry terrain against it.

We had some real fun and I got to ski my favorite line down here which I generically call ‘Little AK’, (in the video Pete Connley skis parts of it) even tho there really isn’t too much little about it.  That line already has me dreaming of an AK trip this April.

We are getting hammered with snow again right now and the forecast is showing a huge amount of snow, then very cold temps.  We’re lining up some bigger lines that those conditions would be money for.  I’ll keep ya posted.