Surfing warming up with the season

RICK FIGNETTI

It looks like summer’s here in Surf City as the beach’s were packed

over the three-day Memorial Day weekend. The sun popped out, and that

sent the air temps up the charts. Combo that with another south swell

with pretty nice water temps, and you have ideal beach conditions.

Although, beware of the riptides. When the surf’s bigger, check in

with our Huntington Beach lifeguards for tips on beach safety. There

have been a few stingrays with the warm water too, so shuffle your

feet as you’re heading out.

The National Scholastic Surfing Assn. held its Western

championships at the Huntington Beach Pier just a little more than a

week ago, and the top amateur surfers from up and down the coast

invaded our local waters.

They scored another good-size southwest swell in the 4- to 8-foot

zone, with bigger sets, which added to the excitement. Five-hundred

surfers competed in the four-day surf event that used the computer

scoring system to the joy of the contestants and fans.

Open men’s saw Orcutt’s Killian Garland take the win with some rad

moves. Garland is gaining momentum as the next event up is the

Nationals, June 22 through 26 at Lowers. He has a title in

mini-groms, boys, juniors and now is trying to add men’s too.

Pier regular and Huntington Beach High School ripper Chase Newsom

came in fifth in mens with some nice exchanges in a tough final. In

the open boys, U.S. pro champ Dino Andino’s son, Kolohe Andino, took

top honors, with Newport’s Andrew Doheny and Ford Archbold, second

and third respectively.

In open women’s, national champ Erica Hosseini finished second,

while Palos Verdes’ “Surfing” magazine cover boy Alex Gray winning

the air show with an explosive front side air on a set. In the

Explorer series, which saw some great surfing too, Huntington’s

Christian Saenz was fourth in menehunes. Alex Gullet placed third in

boys and men’s saw a fired-up Nick Rozsa from Oxnard win it, followed

by last year’s national men’s champ Pat Gudauskas second, and

Huntington Beach’s Todd Hutton slashin’ to fifth. Seal Beach’s Chad

Wells was bustin’ some tail to win masters on a couple blasters, even

though he didn’t think he did, while seniors and super seniors saw

Hermosa’s Scott Daley, a combo winner, surfing like a pro winning two

divisions. The overall S.S. West Coast points leader, Seal Beach’s

Scott Waring, placed second, big Pat Schlick placed fourth and the

Figster, sixth, hit with an interference in the last 60 seconds.

Ouch! National champ Justin Hugron was fifth in long boarding, and

Alison Arvizu rounded out the top four in women’s.

In body boarding, total domination by the Huntington Beach crew

with a first by Chris Welpman, and Billy Hanna pulling into fourth. A

couple weeks to practice up and do it again, with all the other top

surfers from the East, Gulf Coast and Hawaii flying in.

The Roxy Pro in France has just concluded in solid 6- to 8-foot

surf, with lots of sets, rips and super-consistent conditions. Make

it three wins in a row, as Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich, who just recently

won Fiji and Tahiti, now has won France, pocketing $10,000, and

holding a pretty whopping lead in the WCT standings.

Hawaiian Keala Kennelly was runner-up, and likes the big gnarly

surf that she practices at home in, but she needed one more good one

in the final. Six-time world champ Layne Beachley lost to Mulanovich

in the semis, and Aussie new guard Chelsea Georgeson lost to Kennelly

in the other semi-final. That’s it for now.

See ya.

* RICK FIGNETTI is an nine-time West Coast champion, has

announced the U.S. Open of Surfing the last nine years and has been

the KROQ-FM surfologist for the last 18 years, doing morning surf

reports. He owns a surf shop on Main Street. You can reach him at

(714) 536-1058.