WET ‘N’ WILD WITH ROCKIN’ FIG:

The first U.S. event of the 2008 Association of Surfing Professionals tour is happening on the East Coast, the five-star O’Neill Sebastian Inlet Pro in Florida Jan. 4-11. A lot of top surfers in the nation are entered. The surf has been in the 1- to 3-foot range and plenty of Surf City’s top pros went to get a jump on the ratings.

H.B.’s Brad Ettinger, Brandon Guilmette and Teddy Navarro lost out in the round of 96, after having some good heats.

Ripper, Shaun Ward lost a close one in the round of 48. In that same round, Huntington’s Brett Simpson got the high-point wave, a 9.6 for two huge slashes on a left to earn a win, and Micah Byrne advanced as well with some hot surfing action. Also looking good were last year’s winner C.J. Hobgood tearing it up, and hot goofy-footer Corey Lopez, who fell off the World Championship Tour last year, but will be making an all-out assault on the World Qualifying Series tour, to get back on the WCT.

During the middle of that storm last weekend, former H.B. resident Brad Gerlach and San Clemente’s big-wave charger Mike Parsons, plus Greg Long, the XXL big-wave award winner and South Africa’s Grant “Twiggy” Baker, all motored out Friday night to the Cortes Bank 100 miles off San Diego in search of giant surf.

Braving heavy 20- to 30-knot gale-force winds, rain squalls and 10- to 20-foot seas, they set out. After checking in with premier wave forecaster Sean Collins of Surfline, they saw an opportunity that the storm would back off a few hours and the swell would be up. Saturday morning, as forecasted, it cleaned up from the stormy conditions and there was some huge surf — 30- to 50-foot-plus towering waves, some rideable and some closing out.

“Snips” Parsons caught a bomb easily looking 50-feet plus, Gerlach was carving some mean turns on some big ones, Long caught some of the biggest waves of his career, and Twiggy had some that made him look like an ant on the bottom turn. Should be some contenders at the XXL big wave awards later this year. That last storm, one of the biggest for rain in the last few years, left our local mountains with record amounts of snow. Bear Mountain, Snow Summit picked up more than a foot and a half of new snow — that’s more than they got last season. Snow Valley, which is celebrating more than 50 years in existence, picked up almost 3 feet. While Mountain High in the San Gabriel’s got about 2 feet of powder. Wow — the best conditions and coverage we’ve had in a long while.

Farther away, Mammoth Mountain received an incredible 5 feet of new snow at the base lodges, with up to 8 feet of new snow on some of the upper elevations, and Tahoe pulled in a whopping 10 feet. Most are saying this was one of the best snow-producing storm’s they’ve seen over the years. It’s steep and deep; keep your tips up and watch out below! Figster over and out.

RICK FIGNETTI is a 10-time West Coast champion and a longtime KROQ-FM surfologist. He owns a surf shop on Main Street. You can reach him at (714) 536-1058.