Decent crowds show up for U.S. Open
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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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