Logan Radd, Daya McCourt, Clay Garson among GromFest division winners in Satellite Beach

SATELLITE BEACH — At 4-foot, 2 inches, Clay Garson stands shorter than his surfboard.

But, the Melbourne Beach resident with a familiar last name in the surfing industry has been putting on larger-than-life performances.

Saturday at the third annual (twice postponed) Space Coast BoardRiders Club GromFest at Pelican Beach Park, Garson captured top honors in the Micro Grom division, riding out a long, final wave as the horn sounded to clinch his fifth consecutive contest win.

He not only won a GoPro camera, but also a well-deserved Oreo and vanilla cup of ice cream, a day before his eighth Cinco de Mayo birthday party, complete with a taco-shaped piñata.

It was the final age-group event in which Garson will be "pushed in" by his father, Kyle, a well-known surfer who competed on the Association of Surfing Professionals circuit for some 15 years. But, Clay won his event last month in New Smyrna Beach, paddling himself, while his dad was confined to the beach letting his hand heal from a nasty cut.

"I'm not (intimidated) paddling by myself," Clay said, shyly, still riding a white board without any sponsors' decals yet, but making sure we knew about his new Instagram site with older brother Wylie, called the_garson_boys, which already has more than 750 followers.

In Saturday's breezy final, contested in 2-foot choppy waves, Clay's final ride was lengthy, connecting wave after wave, and capped by a hard inside snap even after the horn sounded. At first, another surfer was credited with the win, but a late review at that final wave score (6.33) locked up another victory with a 12.53 total.

"I can't take all the credit," said Kyle, smiling. "His surfing has really picked up. He might be better than daddy (at his age)."

In another epic final, Melbourne's Logan Radd out-dueled his best friend, Carl Burger, the two-time defending champion from Flagler Beach, in a wild, crowd-pleasing 15.27-14.43 final result in the 18-U Boys Jr. Pro.

Burger answered Radd's early 7-point ride with back-to-back reverses for 6.70 and 7.73 scores, but was all but locked out after Radd's clinching 8.27 score came late in the 20-minute heat.

"I knew he had a gnarly air (style of maneuvers), but I just tried to stay smooth," said Radd, 17, a USA Surfing team member, who called Saturday's final his best heat of the year. "We go against each other all the time."

Other winners included: Daya McCart (14.40) in the 18-U Girls Jr. Pro; Reese Lenox (10.33) in the U-14 Girls; Ian Honda (11.60) in the U-14 Boys; and Kai Leavens (10.20) in the Super Grom 10-U.

Stars shine in New Smryna

Ron Jon team surfer Sebastian Peters of Melbourne Beach and Cocoa Beach's Kendall Dimmick etched their names into the National Scholastic Surfing Association record books last month, by scoring double East Coast Regional titles at New Smyrna Beach.

Peters, 13, not only won the U-14 boys division with a 16.27 two-wave score in the final, but he also won the Explorer Boys (U-15) division with a 15.17 score, giving him three career victories and, remarkably, won every heat he competed in.

"Probably my best (performance) this year," the seventh-grade home-schooled student said this weekend while competing at GromFest.

Dimmick won the Explorer Super Girls (U-13) title with a 14.33 score and also won her first title in the Open Mini Grom Girls (U-12) division with a 12.27 total.

Also in New Smyrna Beach, Vero Beach's Tommy Coleman and Melbourne's Kylie Pulcini , both Ron Jon team riders, took home the top pro titles and $3,000 each at the Mike Martin Surf Festival.

In the women's final, Pulcini defeated Indialantic's Daya McCart , who took top honors in the Women's Jr. Pro competition and the $1,000 check by turning the tables on Pulcini.

Slater returns for two

Cocoa Beach's Kelly Slater , who finished the first half the World Surf League season in 33rd place and under the mid-season cut line, already has been granted wild card spots for two of his favorite venues, later this month in Tahiti (site of the 2024 Olympics) and in Fiji later this summer, putting a quick end to any full-time retirement talks.

Just last week, Slater, 52, competed in a Challenger Series qualifying event at Snapper Rocks, Australia, where he placed third in his opening heat, despite a solid effort.

Former Melbourne Beach resident Caroline Marks , 21, the defending women's world champion and two-time Olympian, finished sixth at the halfway point, qualifying for the 10-woman field during the second half.

Board shorts ...

Indialantic's Beckham McCart is representing Team USA as part of the U-16 trio at the World Junior competition in El Salvador this week. He is the first Brevard County boy to be selected to the honor in the 20 years of the International Surfing Association event ... Palm City's Zoe Benedetto was eliminated in the second round of the season-opening Challenger Series event in Australia ... Melbourne Beach's Rachel Presti fell short of representing Germany in the Olympics ... The Space Coast BoardRiders Club, managed by Mason Sapp , has earned a trip to its third straight nationals in San Clemente, Calif. ... Open shortboard winner Noah Dumont Dovin led a contingent of winners from the Central Florida region at the Eastern Surfing Association Southeast Regionals at Paradise Park in Indialantic. Other winners included Kendall Dimmick , Nohea Williams , Victor Nunez , Madison Bennett , Fiona Sargente and Steve Moldenhauer ... The 14th annual Surfers for Autism event takes place June 8 at Shepard Park on Cocoa Beach.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Logan Radd, Daya McCourt, Clay Garson among GromFest division winners in Satellite Beach