Nature showing its power of late

Wet and Wild with Rockin’ Fig

It’s difficult to believe the summer of 2003 has come and is almost

gone, with a lot of the college’s back in session and high school

students getting ready to go back next week. This Labor Day weekend

should bring out big crowds to Surf City’s beaches. I’ll tell you

what, the water temps have been up and down lately, and pretty much

freezing this last week. It dropped to the upper 50s, burr, break out

those full suits again.

Down south, in Baja, Mexico, they recently got hammered by winds

up to 120 mph and buckets of rain from Hurricane Ignacio, which

brushed the tip of Cabo earlier in the week and went up the peninsula

before falling apart.

The airport and harbors were closed down and there was flooding in

the low lying areas, but the good news thus far is no fatalities. I’m

thinking the hurricane took the right path and just went by, out on

the Pacific side, all those secret spots on the east cape and on the

tip could be firing.

As for recent shark sightings, my buddies Harold Bessa and Robert

Bailey have been surfing down south at Trails at San Onofre State

Beach a couple weeks ago. They told me they saw a good-size dorsal

fin cruising right by the surf zone and it didn’t look like a

dolphin. Quickly, they exited the line up, leaving the water to the

man in the gray flannel suit. They watched from the beach and saw the

silhouette of an 8-foot shark streak through a breaking wave. I hear

there have been a few sightings there lately, even of a huge

18-footer, possibly a Great White this last month. Up north last

week, on the central coast at Avila Beach, a lady was attacked while

swimming with seals and died. They say it is a good chance it was a

big Great White mistaking her for food. But there hasn’t been a fatal

attack in the Orange County area in a half a century, and your

chances of getting struck by lightning are probably greater.

World surfing action has been over in Europe lately with a couple

of World Qualifying Series events.

Australian 2001 rookie of the year, 25-year-old Trent Munro has

been on a roll. Munro won the first event at Lacanau, France, “the

Pacific Motion Pro” defeating Brazilian ripper Paulo Moura in the

final. Then, on the next leg of the tour, he won the Rip Curl Cup at

Hossegor, over West Coast ripper from Tim Curran of Oxnard.

Leading the WQS standings is Brazilian and former Huntington Beach

resident Neco Padaratz. Jumping up to second with two victories in a

row is Munro and third is former West Coast shredder, now residing in

Hawaii, Shane Beschen who looks like he’s got a good shot at

requalifying for the championship tour. West Coast stand-outs Chris

“Wardo” Ward is at 13th, Tim Curran is at 16th, Bobby Martinez, a

finalist at the U.S. Open, is at 19th and East Coaster Ben Bourgeois

is at 25th.

The next big surf contest is over in Japan for a six-star, “the

Tahara Pro”, Aug. 25 through 31.

The World Championship Tour’s next event is here on the West Coast

at Trestles, “the Boost Mobile Pro” Sept. 4 through 13. It’s a

$250,000 event with the top 44 in the world on hand. I hear that

former San Clemente resident Shane Beschen got one of the wild card

spots. Beschen has won numerous U.S. tour events in his former

backyard.

World champ Andy Irons, the current point leader is in just a mere

60-point lead ahead of Kelly Slater, the six-time world champ who

will be on hand, along with U.S. Open winner Cory Lopez, Laguna

Beach’s “Endless Summer” movie star Pat O’Connell, Carlsbad’s Taylor

Knox and more!

Put the shrimp on the Barbie, have a good Labor Day and see ya in

September. Rockin’ Fig over and out.

* RICK FIGNETTI is an eight-time West Coast champion, has

announced the U.S. Open of Surfing the last nine years and has been

the KROQ-FM surfologist for the last 17 years, doing morning surf

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

(714) 536-1058.