Time to clean up, hit the surf

RICK FIGNETTI

Coming up this weekend is a big one for the environment, the 20th

annual California Coastal Cleanup on Saturday at a beach near you!

It’s a statewide campaign that started back in 1985 when the

California Coastal Commission started the first one, inspired by a

similar cleanup in Oregon. Now there are groups cleaning up the coast

from NorCal to San Diego.

In 2002, nearly 46,000 participants picked up an amazing 860,000

pounds of debris, making our beaches that much cleaner. It’s a great

way for families, students, service groups, surfers, neighbors and

beach lovers to do something together for a worthy cause.

In Huntington, groups will meet at 9 a.m. at Bolsa Chica State

Beach and Wetlands, Downtown Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway by

the pier and at Huntington State Beach to be part of the solution to

marine pollution, along with trying to take care of a fragile marine

environment. Or if ya can’t make it Saturday, pick up a piece of

trash on the beach next time you’re there and put it in the trash

canister. We should do it every day, not just one day a year.

The Boost Mobile Pro of Surf presented by Quiksilver started

Wednesday at Lower Trestles, Camp Pendleton in San Clemente. Contest

director Mike Parsons consulted with Surfline wave forecasters and

the outlook was better for the second half of the waiting period, so

they held off last week. Now off the tip of Cabo, there’s been

Hurricane Javier brewing, which, if it goes through the window, could

send us some epic surf.

The top 45 in the world will be on hand, tearing it up, starting

with the current world champ, Andy Irons, with a comfortable

1,104-point lead in the ratings. Six-time world champ Kelly Slater

loves the break and is always a threat in the water there anytime.

C.J. Hobgood, who won the last event in Japan, is on a roll and now

is in second in the ratings. Aussie tour veteran Mark “Occy”

Occhilupo will also be there.

Other big guns to watch out for include the style master from

Carlsbad, Taylor Knox; U.S. Open winner Taj Burrow; Big Luke Egan,

who won it a couple years ago; and upcoming new guard Joel “Parko”

Parkinson, surfing lightning fast. You can’t forget about former

world champ and Hawaiian power master Sunny Boy Garcia, Oxnard’s rad

man Timmy Curran plus Laguna Beach’s slash’n Pat O’Connell, all who

have put some time in surfing Lowers over the years.

And don’t forget Hawaiian Kalani Robb plus Brazilian Neco

Padaratz, just to name a few in this international event.

The wildcard seeds by Quiksilver saw three hotties making it in:

Hawaiian Pipe shredder Jamie O’Brien, air blaster Dane Reynolds and

hotshot Trestles ripper Rob “the Mob” Machado. They’ll go through the

rounds till Saturday, take Sunday off and come back on Monday to

finish it off with the finals. Should be a world class act of insane

ripping going down as in past years by the best!

Locally, the 34th annual H.B. Summer Surf Contest will be going on

at the pier at Saturday and Sunday. This surf contest always has a

giant turnout by our Surf City residents in all the different age

brackets.

Also at Ninth Street this weekend will be the first event of the

season for the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. in the Explorer

divisions. It’s the starting of a pretty competitive 10-contest

series up and down the coastline.

Well, that’s it for now. See ya.

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

announced the U.S. Open of Surfing the last 11 years and has been the

KROQ-FM surfologist for the last 18 years, doing morning surf

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

(714) 536-1058.