On 2 July, junior surfer Lucy Darragh of Werri Beach claimed the most impressive win of her career – the under 16s title at the 2024 Billabong Occy Grom Comp. The final, full of twists, turns and unbelievable stoke, came down to the very last wave before Darragh was crowned the winner.

The Occy Grom Comp is perhaps the biggest annual event on the junior surfing calendar, where the winner of each division gets a whopping 10,000 ranking points.

Held at Gold Coast’s Snapper Rocks, revered among surfers for featuring one of Queensland's most consistent breaks, the competition attracted surfers from wide and afar, from Australia to Indonesia and Tahiti.

Lucy Darragh had surfed really well in all the heats throughout the five-day event. In the final she faced local surfer Eliza Richardson. 

Darragh started with a 7 point vs. Richardson’s 2.83, and quickly backed it up with an excellent score of 8.17. 

Towards the end of the heat, Richardson got two great scores in quick succession (a 7.17 and 8.67), snatching the lead from Darragh with less than four minutes remaining.

Celebration. Photo supplied by Larn Darragh.

The Gerringong-native needed a score of at least 7.67 to take back the lead and bring home the title. She had priority and caught a wave in the final minute, surfing it so well that the judges awarded her a rad score of 9.10 out of 10.

On seeing Darragh throwing everything at that last wave, commentators and former world champions Mark “Occy” Occhilupo and Joel Parkinson erupted with a “Epic surfing!”

“When I took off, it looked really good. After the first turn, I was in rhythm with the wave. I was super happy,” says Darragh.

Her goal for 2024 is to qualify for the International Surfing Association World Junior Championships. And this recent win brought her a big step closer.

“It put me in a good position,” Darragh says. She has now won two 10,000-point events, Occy Grom Comp and 19th Taj's Small Fries Yallingup (back in January). 

The 10,000-point events draw the best surfers from the country as they aim to finish the calendar year on top of the rankings, which are part of the selection process for u/16 and u/18 athletes to represent Australia at the ISA World Games the following year. 

The top three best results are considered, and the highest ranked surfer will be selected by the end of December. 

“I’m doing pretty well in the rankings,” Darragh says, currently sitting second (25,550 pts) behind Eliza Richardson (26,100 pts) in the Under 16 Female-division. There’s only 550 points separating the two.

Darragh explains that she needs one more 10,000-point win. Next up is Phillip Island Junior Pro in September, where another precious 10,000 points will be up for grabs.

She has also been selected by the NSW Institute of Sport to participate in the Pursu32+ Talent ID camps for young athletes striving towards the Brisbane 2032 Summer Olympics.