Wet ‘n’ Wild with Rockin’ Fig:

West Coasters go big at the finish of the five-star Association of Surfing Professional’s first event of the year, the O’Neill Sebastion Inlet Pro.

It was a San Clemente final with hot up-and-coming Pat Gadauskas going head-to-head against ripping goofyfooter Mike Losness. It was a sea-saw battle with a few different lead changes, but in the end Gadauskas stuck a big, carving floater and slashed his way to the beach to pull an 8.5-score to seal the win and pick up a check for $12,000 and 2000 valuable ASP points.

Gadauskas beat Nate Dog Curran in the semis while Losness took out East Coast aerial assault artist Sterling Spencer in the other man-on-man heat.

At the Red Bull Tow At, part of the event, veteran Shea Lopez busted some huge airs for the win, going as fast as 20 mph on some of the sling-ins. He catapulted himself off a couple of wave face sections, holding on and landing them with style.

In the chilly waters, of Pillar Point Harbor at Half Moon Bay they held the Mavericks contest last weekend. The surf was a clean 20 to 25 feet when the sets rolled in, which were a bit on the inconsistent side. But contest organizer and event director Jeff Clark felt it was enough to run the big-wave contest.

Surfers flew in from all parts of the globe with their favorite 10- to 12-foot plus big-wave boards. They also got the OK from city officials to run on a weekend, which has never been done.

Some of the top riders showed up, like Ross Clarke Jones of Australia, last year’s XXL big wave award winner Ken “Skin Dog” Collins, former Mavs winner’s Anthony Tasnick and Daryl “Flea” Virosko, to name a few.

Making it to the final, though, and going big time was the new, hottest young big-wave rider from San Clemente, Greg Long, who found the bombs and took the Mavericks victory to add to his recent collection of awards.

A close second was his buddy, South Africa’s Grant “Twiggy” Baker, who won an award for the biggest barrel out there, too. While third was Hawaiian charger Jamie Sterling, who was showing no fear chasing down some of those big ones.

Fourth went to backsider from Santa Cruz Tyler Smith who was carving some mean ones, too. Veteran Mavs pioneer Grant Washburn was fifth, and sixth was San Diego’s Evan Slater rounding out the final.

Long won $30,000 for the win, but in the water the surfers made a pact to split the prize money six ways to all the finalists. Not bad for a hard day’s work. That’s it for now, the Figster over and out.

RICK FIGNETTI is a 10-time West Coast champion and a longtime KROQ-FM surfologist. He owns a surf shop on Main Street. You can reach him at (714) 536-1058.