Boardfest puts on a show, despite wet weather

RICK FIGNETTI

The first winter storm hit last weekend, giving us some windy and

rainy conditions for the final day of the $20,000 four-star women’s

Hello Kitty Boardfest.

The event on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier had some

broken-up, consistent head-high-plus surf with a bit of drift.

Despite subpar conditions, the gals still put on quite a display of

surfing in the stormy swells.

The fans turned out to see Aussie Claire Bevilacqua take the win

with a good left in the final. This was her second victory Stateside

in a row with a win on the East Coast at the Outer Banks Pro in North

Carolina earlier this month. Former national champ Melanie Bartels

battled her way to second late in the heat with a nice right-hander.

Florida’s Karina Petroni, the winner of the last Boardfest in

Manhattan Beach, was third, while fourth went to Australian Rebecca

Woods.

In the World Qualifying Series standings, U.S. Open winner Chelsea

Georgeson is first, Aussie Melanie Redman-Carr in second, Bartels in

third and Bevilacqua moving up to fourth. Carlsbad’s Julia Christian

is in 17th place, Palos Verdes’ Holly Beck is 27th overall, followed

by Newport Beach’s Erica Hosseini in 34th place, Surfside’s Jodie

Nelson running 47th and Huntington’s Allison Arvizu in 54th place.

Lots of other exciting things were going on in the tent fest

behind the surf contest too, with lots of families taking advantage

of free giveaways, autograph signings and more!

The National Scholastic Surfing Assn. Southwest Conference Open

Season contest was held a few weeks back at Oceanside in some

contestable surf.

In the tough men’s division final, Seal Beach’s Chris Waring was

busting some tail and took the big win for the early ratings lead.

Waring looks to be one of the top standouts in the U.S. this season,

which should make Huntington High School a top national contender

this year.

He was followed by San Clemente’s Tanner Gudauskas -- whose

brothers, Patrick and Dane, have won national titles the last two

years -- in second. Huntington High talent dominated the next few

spots with South African transplant Dita Saraiva in third, Ian Ekberg

in fourth and Marty Weinstein completing the sweep in fifth. Don’t

forget local Kory LaPoint, who made the finals at Ventura in the last

Open Season event.

The talent level is up and this looks like a great year if

everything comes together. I think it’s 17 national titles and maybe

18 later this year. No jinxes, so let’s not talk about it.

There are some great coaches for the Oilers, who’ve won a couple

of openers already. The one and only head coach, Andy Verdone, gets

everyone in shape, talks strategy and has been surfing pretty darn

good lately too. Plus there’s assistant coach, surfer, ripper and

shaper Barry Deffenbaugh, who knows how to get the job done. They

have a great shot at it this 2004-05 season.

The Assn. of Surfing Professionals World Tour also got hit with

some bad weather at the Billabong Pro at Mundaka, Spain, during the

finals. Stormy skies, wind, rain and a dropping tide made for less

than ideal surf conditions. Veteran Australian Luke Egan beat the

odds taking Joel Parkinson out in the semis and fellow Aussie Phil

MacDonald in the final for the win. World champ Andy Irons went down

in the semis against MacDonald, but was looking like the man to beat

throughout the event and increased his ratings lead again, to almost

1,500 points.

It looked like a Parko-Irons showdown till the semis, but as the

stormy weather hit, the waves started going downhill fast, and it was

tough to find any good ones out there. That’s Mother Nature.

See ya, 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.