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Decent crowds show up for U.S. Open

RICK FIGNETTI

The U.S. Open of Surfing has been going big time on the south side of

the Huntington Pier. Pretty decent crowds showed up last weekend for

the first part of the event, which featured the men’s pro juniors,

the women’s pro juniors and longboarding.

The surf was in the two- to four-foot range, and the weather was

kind of tropical, with some high thin clouds, sunshine and humid air

temps in the upper 70s. The water was totally warm in the upper 60s

with a lot of surfers trunking it.

With that warm water came a giant invasion by the jellyfish that

were all over the place. The lifeguards were reporting thousands of

swimmers getting stung by those sea creatures.

That didn’t slow the surfers down as the surfing moves being seen

by the juniors were at the highest level ever at a U.S. Open. They

were ripping big time.

H.B. surfer Logan Strook made it to the round of 48, and Surf

City’s Brett Simpson went as far as the quarterfinals, ending up

fifth along with Hawaii’s Clay Marzo and East Coasters Sterling

Spencer and Eric Geiselman. Simpson busted a perfect 10 score on the

way to the quarters, which has been the highest scoring wave of the

contest so far.

Losing out in the semis and placing third were Australia’s Mitch

Coleborn and San Clemente’s Tanner Gudauskas. Hawaii’s Hank Gaskell

and “Bustin” Dustin Cuizon are in the finals on Sunday.

In the junior women’s, Orange County’s Courtney Conlogue and

Katharine Van Dyke placed fifth. The junior women’s final on Saturday

will feature East Coaster Karina Petroni, Hawaii’s Coco Ho, Newport’s

Erica Hosseini and South Africa’s Nikkita Robb.

In the longboarding, H.B. surfers Justin Hugron, Mike Jorgensen

and Dodger Kremel made it to the round of 32 before being eliminated.

Making it to the final was La Jolla’s Joel Tudor, Imperial Beach’s

Taylor Jensen, Capistrano’s Colin McPhillips and South Africa’s

Mathew Moir. That final’s gonna be on Saturday as well.

The long list of surfers in the men’s competition already has had

some casualties among the Huntington hotties, as Ryan Carlson and

Chris Waring lost in the round of 232. Shaun Ward, Ted Navarro, Brad

Ettinger and Mike Hoisington also lost, going out in the round of

192.

Some big namers surfing in the round of 96 include H.B.’s Simpson

and Timmy Reyes, world champ Andy Irons, Ventura’s Timmy Curran, East

Coasters Damien Hobgood and Cory Lopez, Santa Barbara’s Bobby

Martinez, Carlsbad’s Taylor Knox, Hawaiian Sunny Garcia and last

year’s winner, Aussie Taj Burrow.

We’ll see what happens as we roll to the weekend, so come on down.

Yours truly, the Figster, Jimmy Young and David Stanfield will be

doing the M.C. work, and if the waves and the weather come together,

it should be the happening.

Over at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa, one of the heaviest finals

in Assn. of Surfing Professionals history went down in perfect six-

to eight-foot-plus surf.

Irons and Kelly Slater were both ripping, but time was winding

down. Irons was already on the beach after nailing an eight-plus

scoring ride and was thinking he had the win in the bag.

There was only seconds left in the final, when a set wave rolled

in. Slates was in position, but he needed a 9.23, a big score. Slater

threw an assortment of speed slashes and carves, tearing the last

wave to shreds all the way down the point.

When the score came out, it was a 9.5 to seal the deal and another

win.

The big news, besides that, was Reyes losing to Slater in the

semis, but placing an unbelievable third for his best placing ever in

a big time World Championship Tour event.

The ratings have Slater with 5,342 points, Irons with 4,596, Trent

Munro with 4,286, and Mick Fanning with 4,239 at the halfway point of

the season. Reyes moves into the top 30 and that’s in the

requalifying zone. Nice.

Well, that’s it for now. See ya at the U.S. Open.

Fig over and out!

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

the U.S. Open of Surfing the last 11 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.

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