Grommet (sportsperson)

A grommet (grom, or gremmie) is a young participant in extreme sports. Originally, a grommet was a surfer under the age of 16. In recent years, this has expanded to include other extreme sports, most notably skateboarding, roller derby and snowboarding.[1]

Young grommet on a board with his dad watching.

Etymology

The first contextual use of the word appears in a 1964 article by the journalist, Nicholas Tomalin, who on a visit to Newquay in Cornwall noted that: "A surfer who is no good or just beginning is a 'gremmie'."[2]

The word "Gremmie", which was used in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, was derived from the word "Gremlin".[3]

The term "grommet" was used in Lockie Leonard, Legend by Tim Winton in 1997: "Things are never as simple as they seem, not even for grommets". This earliest citation was a few years after the creation of the Wallace and Gromit animated films.

The word was originally a term for an inexperienced surfer, but has become an accepted term for all young participants. For example, the British Surfing Association offers a Grommet Surf Club for young surfers.

Alternative etymology

The word could also have been derived from an Early Modern English word for "junior seaman".[4]

Notes
Look up grommet in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Look up grom in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Term first made popular on the South Coast of NSW in the 1970s Note that the two terms may have different origins contemporaneously, grommet or "gremmie"

References
  1. Definition of grommet on About.com. Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Sun, surf and sexuality – it's a whole new cult". The Times. August 16, 1964.
  3. TransWorld SURF (2006-05-06). "5/9/06 Kew's Corner: The Definition of 'Grommet'". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
  4. "Gromet: Quick reference". oxfordreference.com. Oxford University Press. 2022. Retrieved December 4, 2022. From the medieval Latin gromettus, a youth or servant in the British Navy.
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