WET AND WILD WITH ROCKIN’ FIG:Get ready for Triple Crown

There was thunder down under as they finished up the Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ Nova Schin Festival in Brazil in some windy four to six foot plus surf. Aussie Mick Fanning notched up his second win of the year with a blistering front-side attack with an assortment of lip bash and tail-out moves. Fanning pretty much blew Damien Hobgood right out the door with a 18.77 decision out of 20.00. Hobgood, who’d been ripping all of the event, surfed the lefts that were way more wind-blown and difficult to perform on in the final.

Fanning took out fellow Aussie Philip MacDonald in the semis as Hobgood beat the Fly’n Hawaiian Freddy Boy Patacchia to move on. But it was a big turning point as “Micko” took out the winner of the last event in Spain, Bobby Martinez and “Damo” beat brother C.J. Hobgood in some exciting quarterfinal heats.

World Tour Ratings going in to Hawaii are USA’s “Slates” Kelly Slater first with 7,824 and an eighth world title, Australian Fanning with 6,638, Aussie Taj Burrow with 6,480, Californian Martinez at 6,350 and Hawaiian Andy Irons at 6,348.

The first event of the Vans Triple Crown Series in the men’s division is the WQS Six-star, $125,000-purse Ocean Pacific Pro Hawaii contest at Haleiwa Haliewa Nov. 12-22. The second event is the Six-star, $125,000-purse O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach Park, Oahu, Nov. 24-Dec. 6. And the third event is the $280,000-purse Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters at the Banzai Pipeline, Oahu. It will feature the association’s top 45 surfers, three wild cards and 16 trialists Dec. 8-20.

For the women, their first event is the Ocean Pacific Pro, a Six-star contest worth $30,000, with the same dates as the men’s contest. The second event is the 12th annual Roxy Pro at Sunset Beach Park featuring the top 17-ranked surfers and one wild-card battling for $67,500 Nov. 24-Dec. 6. And the third event of the women’s Triple Crown is the Billabong Pro Maui, which is held at Honolua Bay, Maui, Dec. 8-20 and is open again to the top 17 women and one wild card with $67,500 in prize money.

That will cap the season for the women.

Following are the women’s rankings: Australian Layne Beachley leads with 5,618 points, Australian Melanie Redman-Carr has 5,184, Aussie Chelsea Georgeson has 4,951, Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich has 3,475 and Aussie Rebecca Woods has 3,242.

That’s it for now — Fig, over and out.