Wet and Wild with Rockin’ Fig -- Rick Fignetti

Summer is just around the corner and Surf City has been sizzling with

the nice weather we’ve been having lately. The beaches have been kinda

toasty, the water’s been feeling great now that it’s in the 60s and the

first hurricane swell of the season, Alma, came and went, leaving some

fun memories behind. In fact, there were a few directions of swell that

came in, including some northwest making it head-high plus and peaky.

The Professional Surfing Tour of America was taking advantage of the

conditions down south at Oceanside pier, on the north side. The surf was

running 3 to 5-foot, fair to good conditions, pretty consistent at times

and workable, said contest director Jeff Grell. The turnout was good and

the surfing level was high. As San Clemente’s new guard, “Wardo,” Chris

Ward tore his way to first place, and the highest point total of the

whole contest, 22.25. Seal Beach’s Ryan Simmons, the points leader, was

tearing too and finished second.

Huntington Beach’s Mycah Byrne ripped it big, surfed impressively and

came in third and Carlsbad’s Dane Johnson, who had some nice moves,

followed in fourth.

Honorable mention went to Huntington Beach High School shredder, Brett

Simpson who lost out in the semis getting equal seventh. Newport Beach’s

Richie Collins finished equal ninth and Huntington’s Branden Tipton equal

13th.

In the longboarding San Clemente’s Brenden White took the win taking a

close decision over Huntington style master Josh Mohr. Both surfers had

some good exchanges in the final -- mixing it up with new school and old

school. The amateur’s were doing it up with Taylor Jensen placing third

and Syrus Sutton rounded out the top four. In the women Santa Cruz’s

Diana Mattison had the moves to win it, but Surf City resident Kim

Hamrock made the final and placed fourth with some fun ones.

The West Coast championships for the United States Surfing Federation

were held at Malibu last weekend. The surf on Saturday was reeling and

peeling with some block long righty’s, at times. That, of course, was the

right wave, on the right set, with the right tide, starting in the middle

of the pack, throughout the day. So the contest and the final standings

for the year were on the line. Japan to Huntington transplant Satoshi

Nakamura was fifth overall for the season in mens. In master’s Harold

Bessa finished up seventh overall.

In Seniors, having a few good heats through the season, Jeff Combs and

James Webb were sixth and seventh overall respectively. In grand masters,

Pat Schlick got second in the contest and had some nice moves and placed

fourth in the final standings. The Figster was equal fifth but managed to

have enough points to take the overall west coast title. Jay Boldt was

leading the ratings, going into the last event, but placed equal seventh

and second in the overall. Looking good in the legends division was

Huntington’s Gilbert Perea who had the most points and took a title

there. Long Beach’s Syrus Sutton won junior longboard and Margo Hamrock

was first in the women’s longboard and second place for the season.

Female Surfing icon, Jericho Poppler was on hand and brought a full crew

with her. Her daughter Sophia was second in the Wahini longboard and

other daughter Raquel placed third in the women’s shortboard. See ya.

* RICK FIGNETTI is a six-time West Coast champion, has announced the

U.S. Open of Surfing the last eight years and has been the KROQ-FM

(106.7) surfologist for the last 15 years where he’s done morning surf

reports. He owns a surf shop on Main Street. You can reach him at (714)

536-1058.