Wet ‘n Wild -- Rockin’ Fig

You might be having a nice hot cup of coffee and a doughnut right now,

ready to check the surf or ready to go to work, but if ya’ don’t have

anything planned the O.P. Tag Team Tournament, O.P. T-3, is happening on

the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier.

The action starts at 8 a.m. today with rounds one and two. Friday will

be down to the semis and finals with eight teams remaining. Fifteen teams

will be competing for a purse of $20,000, with the winners splitting

$10,000. Each team consists of two pros, one junior and one female

surfer.

Huntington Beach has a few of the top-ranked teams in this event, I

think. The boys over at Prime Source Mortgage put together a pretty good

one -- it’s J.D., Jeff Deffenbaugh, our newest loan officer and, of

course, all-around shredmaster. J.D., a former top 32 surfer on the World

Championship Tour, teams up with Ryan Simmons, the Professional Surfing

Tour of America overall men’s champ, National Scholastic Surfing Assn.

ripper Seal Beach’s Chris Waring and female surfer Erika Hosseini of

Newport Beach.

Huntington Surf and Sport has the “Larsenator,” Jay Larson, Surf City

whiz kid Danny Nichols and women’s World Qualifying Series standout Jodie

Nelson of Surfside.

Some other notable teams include O.P. with the air-bustin’ Tim Curran;

Quicksilver with Ben Bourgeois, a finalist last year; Dr. G with Dan

Malloy, one of the ripping brother tri combo; O’Neill wetsuits, with

“Archie” Matt Archibald; Globe with “Snips,” Mike Parsons the big wave

extraordinaire and Roy Powers, the big boy from Hawaii.

There will be a tag team media heat, too, with surfers from Surfing,

Surfer, Transworld and Automatic magazines, and possibly the Huntington

Beach Independent crew, too -- you’ll have to be there at high noon

Friday at the showdown to see.

Last year’s winner was Rusty, with the new World Champ, C.J. Hobgood,

and his brother, Damien, taking top honors. They edged out numerous time

World Champ, Quicksilver’s Kelly Slater and East Coast sensation Ben

Bourgeois.

The NSSA held its sixth Explorer contest of the season last weekend at

Oceanside Pier.

The storm held off, so no rain, with some contestable 2- to 3-foot

surf on the north side. Some of our local surfers did well.

In menehunes, the little guys, Kyle Kennelly placed fifth.

In the boys, Chris Waring blasted his way into second while Ian Ekberg

finished sixth.

Juniors division saw Brett Simpson tearing it up, getting second place

-- he’s holding a pretty good lead in the overall ratings, too.

Japan transplant, living in Huntington Beach, Akira Nakaura won the

mens and Willie Safreed got second for a one-two sweep.

Master’s saw Surfing magazine’s editor Evan Slater win one, while Seal

Beach’s Chad Wells and Chas Wickwire finished second and third,

respectively.

Seniors saw a fired up Wickwire take it -- the gold -- and surfing a

division down, “P.T.” Peter Townend ripped into fifth position on a

killer wide-nose secret weapon fish.

In super seniors, Pat Schlick got the win. He’s leading the ratings in

a close one, while the Figster got second and P.T. sixth in another close

final.

In longboarding Justin Hugron and Dodger Kremmel were fifth and sixth,

while bodyboarding saw Darren Moody getting fifth, to wrap up another

one.

* RICK FIGNETTI is a six-time West Coast champion, has announced the

U.S. Open of Surfing the last eight years and has been the KROQ-FM

(106.7) 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.