Local takes second up north

RICK FIGNETTI

The trek up north to the O’Neill Cold Water Classic at Steamer Lane

Santa Cruz proved to be a pretty fun trip for some of our local

surfers who found the chilly waters to their liking. The surf picked

up at the end of the week, 6- to 8-foot, peeling off the point with

some great shape. The high pressure that gave us the warm weather

here, was the same up there, sunny and hot, and that brought the

crowds out too, who were lining the cliff.

One of the Santa Cruz contingency, Kieran Horn from Pleasure Point

on the east side of Santa Cruz was tearing it up. Horn, a crowd

favorite, waited for the good-shaped sets and busted the moves, on

the lined-up rights for the victory and the $5,000 first-place prize.

Hot on his heels was Surf City’s Shaun Ward who was ripping as well,

and posted a second-place at the two-star Foster’s Cup event, winning

$2,500 dollars. That’s a nice way to finish up the season, and secure

a good seed for next years tour.

Third-place was Cardiff’s Rob Machado, who was on fire all season

long, and took the overall U.S. title earning him an extra $10,000

bonus. Rounding out the top four was San Juan Capistrano’s Chris

Drummy who had some excellent heats on the way too.

Another Huntington Beach hottie, Mike Hoisington, made it to the

semi-finals. And Surf City’s Timmy Reyes just missed the

quarter-finals but posted the highest two-wave total for the mens,

15.75, and also pulled a 9.0 score on one wave, just shy of a perfect

10. Rumor has it, after the loss, Reyes, with another top

up-and-coming ripper from Oxnard, Nathaniel Curran paddled out at

inside Cowell’s with their wetsuits on backward, rented a 12-foot

softie board and went out tandem surfing to try to ease the pain.

Hopefully there will be some videos of that session!

In the women’s division, Hawaiian Melanie Bartels needed to finish

in the top two to take the U.S. title. And she did, winning the

final, with some nice exchanges over Claire Bevilaqua who was tearing

it up, too. Local gal Siri Cota was third and Hawaiian transplant to

the West Coast Anastasia Ashley finished fourth.

On the world tour, over in Spain at the Billabong Pro at Mundaka,

six-time world champ Kelly Slater couldn’t be stopped even though the

surf was 1- to 3-feet and blown out. Slates was still going off in

the final, cracking the lip, snapping some turns and throwing some

vertical moves to pull an 8.0 ride and take the decision over Aussie

shredder Taj Burrow. Slater pocketed $30,000 for the win, Burrow

$16,000. But more important, with current world champ Andy Irons

going down in the first round, Slater has over taken Irons in the

standings. So, Slater now has 7,428 points, Irons with 7,240 and

Burrow, in third, has 7,020 points -- which is super tight as the

World Champion Tour heads for Brazil.

I heard Slater signed his big check with his Japanese name,

Yonomi, translated as, you know me, I’m back. See ya Fig over and

out, oh, I hope you’ve been getting some of those killer waves

locally like I have.

* RICK FIGNETTI is an eight-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.