Wet ‘N’ Wild with Rockin’ Fig:

The ASP’s world championship tours “Billabong Pro” has run a few days at Mundaka, Spain.

In the first round, there were a couple casualties as Surf City’s Timmy Reyes got bumped in another close one, as well as Oxnard’s Nathaniel Curran.

In round two, the rad man Dane Reynolds lost to a fired up Hawaiian Kekoa Bacalso, and Santa Barbara’s Bobby Martinez was going for air and eliminated San Clemente’s Chris Ward.

But the big upset of the round was Joel Parkinson, the former points leader, losing to Aussie Drew Courtney, who was throwing some vertical slashes and now has dropped “Parko” to second in the world ratings. East Coaster Damien Hobgood was also eliminated.

Some big match-ups in round three: Florida’s C.J. Hobgood, who’s dangerous on those left’s, against the “Tank” Bacalso from South Africa; Jordy Smith versus big Australian Bede Durbidge; Martinez getting Aussie Dave-O Davidson; and the new points leader, Aussie Mick Fanning, on a roll winning the last two events, versus the Fly’n Hawaiian Freddy Boy Patacchia.

Plus Brazil’s Adriano De Souza is still in, Carlsbad’s Taylor Knox is hanging in the top ten, nine-time world champ and Kelly Slater is nursing a sore knee but is still ripping, and Taj Burrow is hungry for a Euro win. The event is possibly on hold for a few more days, but a new west-northwesterly swell is expected Monday and Tuesday to get things going again.

Behind the scenes, there was talk of a new rebel surf tour forming — the “Champions Surf Tour” — which would promise more prize money and exposure. It’s getting a lot of speculation about who will surf it, who will be the real world champ and will it be good for the sport of surfing or just the top 20 surfers in it? Big pressure causes some change.

Meanwhile, in Spain, the Assn. of Surfing Professionals held a big meeting with some of the pro surfers, board members, event sponsors and media to discuss major changes that will be happening next year.

There has been some discontent by the pro surfers about how things have been going the last few years. One of the complaints was traveling expenses are high and barely get covered if you don’t place well at these overseas events.

So, the new ASP changes are: one world rating system, making it easier to move up in the standings if you’re doing well, an increase in the prize money in men’s and women’s events, a reduction of the field from 45 surfers to 32 and four wild cards, which will make it faster to run an event, and restructuring of the directors.

We’ll get more info on this in the next few weeks. That’s it for now. Figgy 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.