Big wave season arrives

RICK FIGNETTI

Winter’s in full swing, with those northwest swells rolling down the

coastline. The National Scholastic Surfing Assn. has been taking

advantage of those conditions lately, with the last open-season

event, on Jan. 17 and 18 at the Huntington Beach Pier, scoring

overhead surf.

Event seven was a three-star, points-rated contest on the south

side that had more than 300 student surfers entered. Local knowledge

and talent was the key factor for some Surf City rippers to make the

finals. In the men’s, the toughest division, Oxnard’s Nick Rozsa took

the win, but hot on his heels was Huntington’s Chase Newsom who’s

been shredding it up. Palos Verde’s photo boy, Alex Gray, was third,

and San Clemente upstart Dane Ward finished fourth.

In the junior’s division, Colin Schildhauer from up north in

Goleta won it, but two Huntington Beach High School shredders, Marty

Weinstein and Logan Strook, took third and fourth. Boys’ action,

meanwhile, saw Newport’s Andrew Doheny win his incredible fifth event

this season and Ford Archbold place fourth with some nice moves.

Erica Hosseini, the national champ from Newport, won women’s, with

Surf City’s Allison Arvizu grabbing third.

In long-boarding, La Jolla’s Felipe Bacerra claimed the victory

with Huntington’s Mike Jorensen getting third and Shane VanHerk

rounding out the top five. Next up is Ponto, Feb. 7 and 8.

At the Explorer season’s fifth event at Seaside Reef, good-sized

lefts were again breaking way outside, some reforming all the way

through. Huntington Beach’s Anthony Duarte dominated the men’s

division for the win, with San Clemente’s national ripper Dane

Gudauskas finishing second, Huntington’s Brandon Guilmette third and

Todd Hutton fourth.

Juniors saw up-and-coming Chad Montgomery of San Clemente place

first, with local Newsom taking fourth. In boys, Bryan Doheny of

Newport took the win and in the little guys, menehunes, Shana Saraiva

was fourth overall.

In the super seniors, Seal Beach’s Scott Waring won his second

event this season with some nice turns, while “The Schlickster,” Pat

Schlick, was in top form, placing second.

Having a great run this Explorer season in women’s, Arvizu won her

fourth contest, racking up a big lead in the points race. Next up is

Mission Beach, San Diego, Feb. 14 and 15, as the National Scholastic

Surfing Assn. 2003-’04 tour continues.

On the big Monday a couple of weeks ago, the Big Guns went out to

the Cortez Bank, which was huge, but not quite as huge as they

thought it would be. According to “Flea,” Darrell Virosko, the

big-wave “Mavericks” winner a couple years ago, it was crowded. Lots

of boats, skis and crews out there trying to get a shot. It was

40-plus, he was saying, and they wanted mo’ bigga! But it was a good

tune-up session for figuring out the break, which is about 100 miles

out to sea.

Flea was saying when it hits at 60- to 70-plus, the crowd will

thin down and the break has the potential to hold it. Mavs is

heavier, he said, with the freezing water, the undertow-suck into the

Cauldren reef below, the current push into the point and rocks and

the possibility of great whites cruising the lineup. Scary!

That’s it for now, see ya.

* 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.