Big swell on North Shore

The North Shore of Hawaii was firing the first part of the week with a 15- to 20-foot west-northwest swell. It was a bit on the stormy side for the fifth day of the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach as they ran the round of 32.

On Tuesday the surf dropped and cleaned up a bit, with 6- to 8-foot sets and a few 10-footers for the quarter finals, semis and final.

There were a couple of big upsets in the first heat of the morning, as three-time winner Sunny Garcia and the O.P. Hawaiian Pro winner Pancho Sullivan lost out. “A.I.” Andy Irons moves on, as does Aussie shredder Jarrad Howse.

In the second quarter, in an all Australian lineup, Jake “the Snake” Paterson ripped and big Luke Stedman advanced, but Jay Thompson and Beau Mitchell failed to advance.

In the third, Laguna Beach’s Pat O’Connell started out strong with an opening 7.0 score and charged to first, with Brazilian Yuri Sodre making the cut. Top Aussie stars, Trent Munro and Mick Fanning, fell.

In the fourth quarter, Australians Bebe Durbidge and Kieren Perrow took a one-two punch. H.B.’s Timmy Reyes, who was going off in the bigger surf, lost a close one, and Sunset local Nathan Carroll bowed out too. The placing should give Reyes enough points to stay on the elite world tour since this was a six-star Assn. of Surfing Professionals World Qualifying Series event.

In the semis, Irons took control, sending the defending champ back to the final. Patterson was close behind. And Pat O is on a mission with another win and advanced with Durbidge.

So the World Cup final, in pretty consistent, medium-sized surf with light offshores, sees Patterson, who won in 2003, do it again in 2005.

Three-time world champ Andy Irons earned a respectable second-place finish. Durbidge, making his first Hawaiian final, placed third, and Pat O’Connell, in semi-retirement, proved he’s still a force to reckon with by ending up fourth.

That’s it for the second jewel of the Triple Crown. Next up is Pipe, which is a dangerous spot breaking over the shallow coral reef.

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The sad proof of the Pipe’s danger was evident last Friday, when a 25-year-old Tahitian big-wave rider, Malik Jouyeux, drowned there.

In 10-foot surf and on a late drop, Malik was trying to pull into the barrel, but the lip drove him down into the bottom, knocking him out. He then was held down by two more sets. CPR was administered in the water and on land, but it was too late.

Malik was known for getting one of the biggest barrels ever at Teahupoo, which was a magazine cover shot in 2003, and also for working with an anti-drug program and befriending many visitors to Tahiti.

He will be greatly missed.

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Finally, a shocker: Clark Foam, makers of the foam that most surfboards are made out of, closed its doors on Monday after being in business 45 years.

After a battle with the Environmental Protection Agency over the use of a toxic chemical, toluene diisocyanate, the company was given a 10-page citation that threatened possible jail time and fines.

Rather than make the changes, the company shut down operations that supply 90% of the surf board blanks worldwide. This ends an era, one controlled by “Grubby” Clark, and there now will be a definite shortage of blanks and prices will no doubt skyrocket the next few months.

That’s it for now. The Figster, over and out.

* RICK FIGNETTI is an nine-time West Coast champion, has announced the U.S. Open of Surfing the last 12 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.

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