Wet and Wild with Rockin Fig
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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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