Surf City boys are placing

WET AND WILD WITH ROCKIN’ FIG

The United States Surfing Federation is at the halfway point of

the 2002-03 surfing season. It just held its sixth event at Ponto

State Beach in Carlsbad, right by the jetties on Sunday.

The surf was in the waist- to head- high-plus zone, picking up a

little pulse of that northwest swell that rolled in, and it was

pretty fun at certain tides. Although there was some heavy current.

You definitely needed your best paddling arms out there, that’s for

sure.

In the senior men’s, Huntington Beach’s Jeff Combs was busting

moves to place third overall in a hotly contested final. Combs is

having a great season, coming out of the gates strong, winning a

couple, and is sitting in the No. 1 spot in the ratings at the

moment.

“Combsy,” has his sights on a West Coast title this year. His

friend and fellow shredder James Webb, also from Surf City, is second

in the standings.

Webb finished behind Combs in the senior’s finals, getting fourth

place, but in the Mini Series event before the Championship Tour,

they flip-flopped, making Webb fourth and Combs fifth.

With six events to go, it looks like a battle to the end for those

two and a couple others hotties from up and down the coast.

In the grandmasters division, surf veteran and martial arts black

belt Scott Lewis, from the South Bay area, was in top form, taking

the win with some nice rides, while the Figster pulled into second

with a couple of lip bashes.

Last year’s U.S. champ, Pat Schlick, came in third with some good

rides, too.

The overall points leader for the division was Jay Boldt from

Huntington Beach, who came in equal fifth.

In women’s, in the Mini Series, Raquel Bartlow from Long Beach

finished up fourth to round it out.

Next up is the rescheduled Topanga surf event Feb. 15 and 16 at

that classic right point break, which I hear has been breaking pretty

good lately.

Coming up this weekend is the H2O Surf and Snowboard Winter

Classic. The surfing will be at the south side of the Huntington

Beach Pier Saturday starting at 7 a.m.

There are some big names entered from both sports. The

snowboarding will be at Mountain High on Sunday. Sounds like fun.

From the beach’s to the mountains, it’s the best of both worlds.

See ya.

* RICK FIGNETTI is a seven-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 17 years, doing morning surf

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

(714) 536-1058.