WET AND WILD WITH ROCKIN’ FIG:Classic rites at the pier

It all came together last week at the two-star Vans Pier Classic, presented by Jacks Surf Shop at the Huntington Pier.

Sun, surf and a pumped-up local contingency did some big damage ripping it up all the way to the final. A solid combo swell hit Thursday, giving some good-sized 4- to 8-foot rights and lefts that were reeling on southside at the end of the week.

In the final on Sunday, the surf finally dropped to the 1- to 3-foot range and was pretty wind blown.

But it didn’t matter to Surf City’s Micah Byrne, who caught one of the only sets at the start of the final and ripped some big backside moves, scoring an 8.25 to take the lead until the final buzzer.

Costa Rica-to-H.B.-transplant Federico Pilurzu had a couple of nice ones to finish second, while 17-year-old East Coaster Eric Geiselman pulled into third busting tail-out moves throughout the event.

H.B. surfer/shaper Michael Hoisington, who was on fire from day one, rounded out the top four spots.

Honorable mention goes to Seal Beach’s Chris Waring, who was going off too but lost to Byrne in the semis, and also Huntington’s Brad Ettinger, who almost made it to the final until Hoiso caught a scoring wave in the last minute to knock him out.

In the juniors, E.G. Eric Geiselman, last season’s Assn. of Surfing Professionals North American juniors champ, looked unstoppable to take the victory. Waring was hot on his heels, placing second with some heavy turns.

Travis Beckmann, another East Coaster from Florida, was third, and fourth was Ventura’s Chad Compton, who was killing it, too.

In the women’s one-star World Qualifying Series event, Argentina’s Ornella Pellizari was surfing the southern end of the site and found a couple of connectors to score the win. Second was Santa Ana’s Courtney Conlogue, who looked like the girl to beat the whole contest and even busted a perfect-10 score in her semi heat.

Third was Oxnard ripper Sage Erickson, and fourth was Cocoa Beach’s Christa Alves.

I heard it through the grapevine that Surf City will be hosting the first Surf City USA Longboard Pro-Am, featuring the Guy Takayama Pro-Noseriding Series onApril 20th-22nd at the pier. With tandem surfing and even a classic legends heat, there will be limited entries and a bunch of booths of industry products on display. Sounds like fun.

Meanwhile, some hot new sounds have been flowing on Main Street, including surf tunes from Killer Taco’s Steve Munoz. Local boy Stevo is coming out with “Soft Taco,” a new album of surf songs like “Surfers Dream,” which sounds like a Hawaiian love song a la Elvis Presley, and faster beats like “Rock Round the World,” which tells the story of Stevo escaping a 20-foot shark.

He even got some coverage on Channel 2 news.

Rock on! Fig over and out.