San Clemente’s Kolohe Andino took home a big win at Salt Creek this past Saturday at the 2009 Rip Curl GromSearch National Final.

The final event in the national series brought together some of the best young surfers from around the nation, with Kolohe earning an all-expenses paid trip to Bells Beach in Australia in April to go up against the best from around the globe.

Kolohe posted a heat total of 15.36 in the final, where he went up against - and beat out -  Newport’s Taylor Thorne.

Andino is no stranger to winning and has had a stellar year - in June, he took home national titles in three divisions during the National Scholastic Surfing Championship.

The Rip Curl contest is meant to groom young talent to face similar conditions to those they would see in the World Championship Tour, on which undoubtedly we’ll see some of these young surfers in the near future.

O.C.’s Lakey Peterson also did really well, placing second in the finals for girls younger than 16.

It’s the 10th year the event has been held, and through the years several now well-known names have been among the winners, including surfers such as Stephanie Gilmore, Mason Ho (who beat Jordy Smith to become the first non-Australian Rip Curl GromSearch Champion in 2005), Owen Wright, Sally Fitzgibbons and Alana Blanchard, according to the Web site.

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