Not Your Average 9-Year-Old

How many nine-year-old girls do you know who wear dresses but also surf, skateboard, ride motocross, wakeboard, catch deep-sea fish, do Brazilian jiu-jitsu and ride horses in addition to regular school sports? Meet Harper May Molgora, Westbrook’s most prolific little hoyden. Doing what she loves, Harper keeps defying traditional expectations of what girls can do.

From mastering extreme sports with her dad and her best friend, Max de Robillard, to caring for her eight pets, including a dog named Coconut, four chickens, a guinea pig, a bunny, a cat and a horse, Harper is a force to be reckoned with.

“It’s fun doing things that most girls don’t do,” she said. Growing up on the beach, often going to work with her dad, Ant, a career lifeguard and now eThekwini Municipality’s Manager for Aquatic Safety, Harper stood up on her first wave at the age of four in the Umdloti tidal pool. More recently, she became a two-time Grom Games champion, winning the U8 and U10 girls’ categories in 2025 and 2026, respectively. Brave beyond her years, Harper fondly recounts paddling out to the shark nets with her dad on a rescue mallie board and seeing hammerhead sharks.

Most surfers can skateboard pretty well, and Harper is no different. Having competed in the last three Ballito Pro Skate Jam competitions – yes, she can drop into the infamous Ballito bowl – Harper earned a golden ticket invitation to the Motherland Women’s Day skate comp in Johannesburg, where she won the Most Heart award for fearlessly dropping into an eight- to 10-foot half pipe without flinching. She credits her friend, Ashley Gindré – the 11-year-old SA U13 skateboarding champion – for inspiring her and pushing her skating to a higher level. Returning the favour, Harper taught Ashley how to surf. 

She recently stunned crowds, leaping forward to be a volunteer participant in extreme rider and 11-time SA motorcycling champion, Brian Capper’s Xtreme trials riding show at the Ballito Pro. Neither Harper nor her mum, Sher, knew what she was in for. With nerves of steel, Harper lay perfectly still as Brian bounced his bike’s front wheel side-to-side over her head. “I had trust in Brian’s capability as an athlete,” she nonchalantly stated. 

Perhaps her braveness around motorbikes stems from her own prowess as a motocross rider. On weekends, Harper goes riding with her dad in the sugarcane fields around Westbrook. She recalls an incident at home where she whisky-throttled into a tree. She still went out riding undeterred.

Being a water baby, Harper has also learnt to wakeboard and is stoked on deep-sea fishing. “When it’s windy at the beach we go to Hazelmere Dam or Zinkwazi lagoon to tube and wakeboard,” she said. 

One of her most magical experiences with deep-sea fishing was coming across a huge bloom of blue blubber jellyfish in the warm Benguela current. While remaining laser-focused on landing her first couta, Harper treasures every dolphin and whale experience out at sea.

When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Harper’s answer is clear; she wants to be a professional skater, surfer and a teacher; perhaps an art teacher as she loves arts and crafts too.

With parents who try to go away as much as possible and expose Harper to adventures while supporting her in activities she wants to try, the sky is the limit for Westbrook’s gnarliest little trailblazer.

Photo Credit: Luke Patterson