Surfing event features many

RICK FIGNETTI

They’ve been setting up the beach all week long for the Bank of the

West Beach Games, which will feature surfing, skating, BMX,

volleyball, freestyle motocross and some happening concerts.

The surfing event will have the largest field in the world, and is

scheduled to start tomorrow at the Huntington Pier with the six-star

Honda U.S. Open of Surfing presented by O’Neill.

The action will start in the water at 7 a.m. The first part of the

event is the start of the trials with the lower-seeded surfers. As

the days roll along, the higher-seeded surfers will come out of the

woodwork and start to surf too. So lots of the big name surf stars

won’t be surfin’ till next week, like world champ A.I. Andy Irons,

World Championship Tour ratings leader Kelly Slater, Hawaiian Power

Master Sunny Garcia, U.S. champ Rob Machado, the “H.B, Mauler” Timmy

Reyes and more.

Lots of talent from day one to day 10.

It will follow the typical format with four surfers in a heat,

with two advancing to the next round. When it comes to the

quarterfinals, semis and finals, there will be something new for a

World Qualifying Series event -- man-on-man competition using a

priority buoy, just like the World Championship Tour contests. Lots

of divisions -- men’s, women’s, junior men, junior women and

longboard -- with more than 500 competitors, chasing more than

$185,000 in prize money and valuable ratings points.

On July 30, there will be the junior women’s final at high noon;

the longboard final, modern progressive and fancy footwork contests

at 1:30, and the hotly contested women’s final at 2 p.m..

Then watch out on the 31st, ‘cause the juniors final will be at

12:55 p.m., with those guys ready to throw up some new futuristic

moves. The men’s grand pro final, featuring the best in the world

ready to tear up the H.B. surf, will be at 1:25 p.m. Don’t be late,

it’ll be standing room only.

Another big event is happening next week in front of Huntington

Surf and Sport on July 29 at 10:00 a.m. The Surfers Hall of Fame will

be inducting four-time world champ Mark Richards, another fearless

big wave ripper in former world champ Australian Tom Carroll,

Quiksilver founder and top business executive Robert McKnight, and

local legend and inventor of the rocket fish Carl Hayward.

Slater will serve as master of ceremonies at the event, which will

include guest speakers Corky Carroll and TV commentator David

Stanfield.

Right now, the big boys are over in South Africa for the Billabong

Pro at J-Bay through July 22. They have run a few rounds. It’s been

on hold for a few days, but got back going midweek.

So far, there have been some upsets. South African wild card

Damien Fahrenfort take out the U.S.’s C.J. Hobgood. San Clemente’s

Chris Ward went down, along with East Coaster Shea Lopez. Cory Lopez,

Shea’s brother, took out wild card Sean Holmes to advance.

Still surfing and lookin’ good were Hawaii’s Bruce Irons,

Californian Taylor Knox, and Aussies Joel Parkinson, Taj Burrow, Luke

Egan and Mark Occhilupo.

There’s some big matchups in round three -- Slater up against wild

card Fahrenfort, A.I. against Brazilian Bernardo Pigmeu, and H.B.’s

Reyes up against Aussie Trent Munro. Go Timmy go! Final results next

week.

See ya at the U.S. Open.