WET AND WILD WITH ROCKIN’ FIG:Irons strikes while surf is hot

The first event of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing series, the six-star Hawaiian Pro, finished up last week at Haleiwa. The surf was small by Hawaiian standards, a clean 2- to-4-foot with moderate offshore winds and some rippable rights and lefts.

Three-time world champ Andy Irons started off with a couple of good rides and set the pace, leading the whole time. Irons found a right that held up, bashing the lip a couple of timesand throwing water until hooking a cuttie on the corner to outdistance Aussie Taj Burrow to win the $15,000 first-place check. Burrow was tearing the lefts, but came up short in the 35-minute final, with local boy Joel Centeio third and France’s Mikael Picon fourth. After the Hawaiian Pro, it’s 99% sure that East Coaster Gabe Kling will qualify to surf on the championship tour next season.

The next event at Sunset Beach, the $125,000 O’Neill World Cup of Surfing Nov. 24 to Dec. 6, has already started. Standouts thus far have been former Hawaiian world champ Derek Ho, winning a couple heats as did fellow locals, Jesse Merle Jones and Hank “the G-Man” Gaskell. Also moving on were the Big Island’s Myles Padaca and the South Bay’s Alex Gray. Huntington Beach’s Brett Simpson is scheduled to surf in round three as the event rolls on and the promises of some new swells are on the way.

For the women’s championship tour, the Roxy Pro at Sunset has been run down to the quarterfinals. Wild-card Australian Stephanie Gilmore has put it to the vets, pulling the highest two-wave scores of the event, 18 and 10. Also winning heats and advancing were Peru’s former world champ Sofia Mulanovich and Hawaiians Melanie Bartels, Rochelle Ballard, Megan Abubo. Making the quarters as well were No. 1 in the ratings, Australia’s six-time world champ Layne Beachley, No. 2 in the standings fellow Aussie Jessie Miley Dyer, and Rebecca Woods and Hawaiian big-wave charger Keala Kennelly.

The first snowstorm of the season hit the local mountains, picking up a few inches last Monday. Over in the San Gabriel’s, Mountain High is open for the 2006-2007 season with the help of the snow guns. Over in the San Bernardino Mountain’s Bear Mountain, Snow Summit and Snow Valley are scheduled to open by the end of the week. The Santa Ana winds were blowing midweek, too, and those are perfect for blowing the artificial stuff, snow. It’s a late start, but it’s starting to happen now!

Good luck to Assn. of Surfing Professionals top-16 town shredder Timmy Reyes, who is having surgery on his hurt knee this week. That’s it for now. Fig, over and out.