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Wet and Wild with Rockin Fig

Surf City went big last week with the Phillips Fusion U.S. Open of

Surfing, which was part of the $240,000 Extreme Sports Festival at the

Huntington Beach Pier.

The surf contest had one of the largest fields of surf competitors

ever, with surfers coming from all parts of the globe -- as far away as

Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Tahiti, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Puerto

Rico, Europe, England, France, Portugal, Spain, plus the U.S.’s finest

east and west and Hawaii -- to try to stake claim to the prestigious U.S.

Open Title.

Lots of trials rounds, even before the main event. Here’s some of the

big highlights I remember, some of our local standouts, and other world

class surfers.

The competition was fierce, as Surf City’s Timmy Reyes was shredding a

heat and looked like a for sure advancement, when a couple Japanese

surfers rallied in the last six minutes of a heat, Ohno and Urayama. Ohno

threw one of the sickest cutbacks of the contest and Urayama got a couple

nice ones and bumped Reyes at the buzzer.

Hot local shredder in the men’s, Micah Byrne, started the first day at

Goldenwest Street and went all the way to the round of 96, that was eight

rounds, with some incredible surfin’. His former coach at Huntington

Beach High School, Andy Verdone, was stoked to see the former team

captain doing so well. Also J.D., Jeff Deffenbaugh was ripping, too, but

in one heat, he was kinda snaked on a takeoff and was hit with an

interference call -- meaning being scored on two waves instead of three,

which usually means disaster. But D-Baugh didn’t let it affect him,

scoring the two highest waves of the heat in the 7.80 zone and got

through a real nail biter.

Former three-time world champ Tom Curren was one of the real

favorites, and the beach and pier would fill up every time he surfed.

This year Curren’s been on a roll and was doing the same at the Open. In

one late-round heat Curren upset No. 3 and No. 4. in the World

Championship Tour standings -- Cory Lopez and Taylor Knox, just off a

finals placing at Jeffries Bay, South Africa, a few weeks ago. He didn’t

let anybody down with his stylish carving turns and pulled some biggy

scores from the judges who liked it, too.

Our highest ranked local surfer, Seal Beach’s Ryan Simmons, the World

Qualifying Series star, blew up in one heat, tearing the lips off many

sections of the wave faces and taking out last year’s finalist, ripper

Kalani Robb in one heat. He met his match in the round of 32, just one

heat short of the quarterfinals.

Cardiff’s Rob Machado, a finalist last year here and a Pipeline winner

in Hawaii, was gaining momentum, blowing minds on the south peak down the

beach, and found a dry barrel in the shore break to finish one wave that

scored some 10’s -- perfection.

Defending champ and current world champ Sunny Garcia was hit with a

paddling interference that knocked him out of the contest, and he wasn’t

pleased about it either, but he still threw a couple patent-pending power

slashes.

Aussie Mick Fanning was surfing quick, fast and radical, and looked

like a shoo-in for the final, but lost in the semis as did Tim Curren,

the rubber-man who was racking some good ones through all his heats. And

in the all-Brazilian other semi, Dornelles and Nunes got the advancement

over Padaratz and Rocha.

So that set up the final: Machado, who’s been on fire all week long,

from the U.S. versus two Brazilian rippers, Marcelo Nunes and Rodrigo

Dornelles, and hot Aussie fire plug Toby Martin.

The Mobster starts off strong getting a couple sets at David’s peak,

way down the beach and annihilating them. Big scores are dropping for

Machado, and the rest of the surfers are trying to hold the pace. Lots of

exchanges by all four competitors, but it was Nunes who’s closing the

gap. Finally on a wave close to the pier, where he bashes it a couple

times and actually turns inches by a piling, he moves into first.

Only about a minute and a half to go, outside here comes another

overhead set swinging to Machado. He was going left on most the other

rides but chooses to go right on his backside this time.

Machado drops in, throws the bottom turn, then goes straight up

bashing the lip, tailout, free falls back down, then goes straight up

again, cracking it, making it, goes for the third insane maneuver but

comes unglued. It’s silent for a second, then the score comes in, its a

7.23, enough to turn it and seal the win. The crowd of about 100,000

spectators goes wild with applause. They carry him out of the water and

up the beach, another win at the U.S. Open for Machado -- he won in 1995

against, you got it, Kelly Slater.

The juniors showcased the future up and coming world talent in another

30-minute final. This one saw Santa Barbara’s Bobby Martinez start strong

and never look back. His style seemed suited to the mostly lefts that

were coming in, and he even scored a wave in the nine-zone midway through

it. Local standout Micah Byrne was on a mission too, lip bashing and

bustin’ some airs too. He placed a solid second and was showing some new

school moves. From Hawaii, Freddy Boy Pattachia was ripping, and got

third and fourth went to Brazilian Raoni Monteiro.

In the longboarding, it was a good as it gets. In a duel, Surf City’s

Josh Mohr and San Clemente’s Josh Baxter battled it out wave for wave,

noseride for noseride and lip bash for lip bash, but Baxter finally got a

set wave and hit it twice as hard as anybody could on a nine-footer and

edged Mohr. Former world champ Colin McPhillips was third and Carlsbad’s

Linden Broccoli was fourth.

The women’s final was on Saturday and former world champ Pauline

Menczer definitely showed why she’s the veteran, laying out the law

early. She pretty much ran off with it. Julia Christian, the Professional

Surfing Tour of America points leader, surfed impressive too, placing

second. Aussie Prue Jeffries, another veteran, was third, and local gal

Jodie Nelson ripped to fourth to round it out.

So that was that, nine days of fun in the sun, the combo swell hit for

the weekend just in time, and the surfing level was at an extreme high.

The announcers; the Fig, Morgan and Terry, now have a few days to get

wet too. See ya, hope ya had fun.

* RICK FIGNETTI is a six-time West Coast champion, has announced the

U.S. Open of Surfing the last seven years and has been the KROQ-FM

surfologist for the last 15 years where he’s done morning surf reports.

He owns a surf shop on Main Street. You can reach him at (714) 536-1058.

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