Body Glove grips new season

RICK FIGNETTI

The pro surfing season in the mainland United States has arrived with

the $40,000 Body Glove Surf Bout scheduled to start at Lower Trestles

in San Clemente from April 20 to 24.

The two-star men’s, women’s and air show is also the start of the

four-event Grand Slam Series. The Body Glove Surf Bout is sanctioned

by Assn. Surfing Professionals North America and is the 2004 Surfing

America Pro Tour’s first event that will be covered by the Fuel TV

show that airs on Fox Sports West. The men’s prize money is $25,000,

while the women’s one-star is $5,000, and 18 of the top surfing

aerialists will compete for a $5,000 purse.

Former winners of the men’s include three-time winners Shane

Beschen and Jeff Booth. A winner back in 1990 in perfect, 8-foot

Trestles conditions -- when he was turning pro -- was six-time world

champ Kelly Slater, and U.S. standout Rob Machado has won, too. Hot

local San Clemente surfer-skater Christian Fletcher won one of the

biggest first-place prize checks ever in the continental U.S.,

$30,000, for boosting some big airs in the final.

The second Grand Slam event is the Globe-Gallaz Pro in Oceanside

July 14 to 18, then the OP Newport Classic Sept. 23 to 26 in Newport

Beach, and to finish it off, the O’Neil Cold Water Classic in Santa

Cruz Oct. 20 to 24.

Over in Australia, the 32nd annual $260,000 Rip Curl Bells Beach

Classic has seen some fun days of surf and has been on hold a few

days, too. So far, they’ve run till round four, with some heavy

matchups: Aussie Luke Egan vs. world champ Andy Irons from Kauai;

Slater vs. up-and-coming Australian Nathan Hedge; Carlsbad’s Taylor

Knox vs. former world champ Mark Occhilupo; and Laguna Beach’s Pat

O’Connell, who took out the ratings leader in his previous heat, Mick

Lowe, now faces ripper Danny Wills in the next.

Already making it to the first-quarter final are big guns Joel

Parkinson and Mick Fanning. Aussie wild card Toby Martin is in the

quarters after defeating the Gold Coast’s Dean Morrison. Another

former world champ, Sunny Garcia, who’s been out with a knee injury,

had to be helped out of the water with a pinched nerve in his neck

that gave him an extreme migraine in his heat, which he was winning

till that happened. Hope he’s better soon.

The heats just keep getting harder and harder, and we’ll see who

gets the Bells Trophy next column. Hope you’re having a good spring

break, as most of our local high schools and middle schools have this

week off.

See ya in the lineup. 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.