Big Wednesday hits Surf City

The New Year is coming up quickly; in fact, it’s this Sunday. And to kick it off, the Huntington Beach Long Board Crew is having its annual pier paddle race.

Starting time is 8:30 a.m., location is the south side of the Huntington Pier, and it’s free to the public, although a $5 donation would be nice to cover expenses.

There will be medals for the top six finishers. The event is limited to surfboards only -- no paddleboards.

The club was founded in 1985 and has been going strong since. Its focus is on surfing, local environmental issues and giving back to the community. Some of the Hall of Famers that are members include former world longboard champ Joey Hawkins; top pro longboarder Josh Mohr, who just opened his own shop; legends like David Nuuhiwa; Main Street Walk of Famer Chuck Linnen; top-notch shapers Bob “the Greek” Bolen and Mike Minchinton; other style masters such as Mike “the Rat” Ester, Gary “Seahag” Sahagen, who’s been making a ton of finals lately, George and Allan Lambert and the first surf coach at Huntington Beach High, Bruce Gabrielson; and top-ranked women such as world champ and many-time national champ Kim Hamrock and local styler Eva Lewington.

The first tournament of the year, the DLSA Invitational, is slated for Church’s from Jan. 7 to 8, and they are hoping to make a good showing to start the season. The first meeting of the year is at Mario’s in the Five Point Shopping Center. It will be at 7:15 p.m. Jan. 11. It’s held on the second Wednesday of each month if you’re interested in getting involved.

The 2005-06 chairman and surf team captain is Sahagen, and the directors are Wally Walczyk, Tom Knight and Dave Carlos, who all surf really well too.

Hopefully the weather will be nice on Jan. 1 for the paddle race, but rain or shine, warm or freezing, they’ll be there, ready to kick off the new year!

*

The surf has sure been big lately, some calling it the biggest in the last 10 years, especially on Big Wednesday of last week. Surf City beach’s were maxing out at 6 to 15 feet.

The outer reef at the cliffs, known as Box Cars, had some surfers doing tow-ins with their jet skies. Seal Beach was pumping as well, 13th Street was breaking way outside off the jetty and the inside was double-overhead and throwing.

Down in San Clemente, Church’s, Lower’s, Upper’s and Cottons were reeling well overhead.

And down south at Swamis, it was 10 to 20 feet, looking like Sunset Beach in Hawaii.

Sadly, there was a drowning in Carlsbad in the big surf, plus lots of boards snapped and rescues made along the coast due to the storm swell.

But nowhere was as big as off the coast of Mexico at that island called Todos Santos. There it was running 20 to 50 feet plus. Huge gnarly rights were breaking with good shape, and giant bowl sections were seen five stories tall.

The San Clemente crew of Greg and Rusty Long caught some mackers that day and, “Snips” and “Gerr” -- Mike Parsons and Brad Gerlach -- caught some big-time bombs too. There are some insane photos of those incredible swells and waves that will make print in the mags, so stay tuned.

Happy New Year. Fig, over and out.

* RICK FIGNETTI owns a surf shop on Main Street. You can reach him at (714) 536-1058.

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