Big waves and a farewell

RICK FIGNETTI

The first World Championship Tour surfing event, the Quiksilver Pro,

was run in some fun surf at Snapper Rocks, Australia. Local surfer

Mick Fanning, back from injury, was in top form to take the win and

cash purse of $30,000.

Fanning had a nasty injury in Indo last year and had to take a lot

of the 2004 season off. He would’ve missed the cut, but was awarded a

wildcard injury slot from the Assn. of Surfing Professionals to surf

this new season.

Considered the fastest surfer on tour, Fanning had a two-wave

score of 16.93 out of 20, averaging eights a wave, which is pretty

darn good for a final. And now he joins the list of new Australian

upstarts that have won here, a group that includes “Parko” Joel

Parkinson in 2002 and Dean Morrison in 2003.

The big surprise though, was, San Clemente’s Chris Ward going

ballistic all the way till the end, placing second. “Wardo,” 26, is

one of the newly qualified Americans this year getting off to a great

start, taking out some heavy hitters on the way.

Equal thirds went to Aussies Trent Munro and Tom Whitaker, while

equal fifths went to world champ Andy Irons, East Coasters C.J.

Hobgood and Kelly Slater, and the timeless veteran Mark Occhilupo.

Hawaii’s Bruce Irons won the top barrel award for the longest tube

ride.

Next up is Bells Beach, Australia, from March 22 till April 1, in

search of the Bell.

Last week, we saw some huge surf hitting our coastline. Here in

Surf City, the Cliffs were the biggest, with double overhead plus.

There were rumors on the outer reef of Box Cars triple overhead on

the max sets. The pier was jamming for a few days, with surfers

taking advantage of the biggest swell of the year thus far.

Farther out to sea, the Cortez Bank was breaking again, with some

giant 40-footers. A few brave big wave extraordinaires were there:

former Huntington resident Brad “Gerr” Gerlach, Mike “Snips” Parsons,

San Clemente brothers Rusty and Greg Long, the latter just off a

second-place finish at Mavericks up north.

The big wave surfing pioneers of the Cortez Bank got there by

boat, surfed all day and all got back home safely that night.

This week, we’re already seeing some surf activity from the

Southern Hemisphere, an early south swell that’s comboing with a west

swell to again give us some overhead surf. Cowabunga, that’s about

three weeks straight of surf now.

Downtown has been seeing some early spring breakers, as schools

from the Midwest and East have been out and they’re stoked. One gal I

talked to said it’s been freezing in Boston, it’s been in the 30s

there, so it was nice to get some warmer air temps and sunshine here.

One last goodbye to Taylor Clifford, the 15-year-old surfer gal

from Huntington that passed away the first part of March. It’s a

tragedy. She could have been a model. She could’ve been a pro surfer.

She could’ve gone around the world, but she died of a drug overdose.

What a sad ending.

She will be greatly missed by family and friends.

That’s it for now. Fig over and out.

* 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.