Irons grabs the lightning to win in Brazil

RICK FIGNETTI

It was thunder down under in South America at the World Championship

Tour’s $260,000 Nova Schin Surf Festival in Brazil, held at Imbituba,

Santa Catarina.

The surf was dropping, but still a fun 2 to 3 feet with offshore

conditions as thousands of spectators hit the beach to watch

Australian Taj Burrow take the crown with the big win. Burrow -- a

winner in Brazil in 1999, 2002 and now again in 2004 -- was

unstoppable, opening up with an 8.5 wave to set a fast pace over

fellow Aussie Tom Whitaker. In the later goings, Burrow threw a huge

air reverse that scored big time (9.33) in the excellent zone and

sealed the deal again, winning $30,000 and also moving up to fifth in

the overall standings.

Whitaker, with his best performance thus far, moved up 13 spots to

No. 13 as he tried to secure a spot on the elite tour next season.

Two Brazilian wildcards lost in the semis, placing equal third,

Renan Rocha and Tanio Barreto. The U.S.’ Kelly Slater lost in the

quarters for a fifth place finish, but was heard saying he’d love to

finish the season off with a win at Pipe.

Here it is, the big news. Two-time world champ Andy Irons made it

to round four, and Australian Joel Parkinson, the only guy with a

slight chance of stopping Irons in the points race, needed to win the

event, but lost out in round three. So, A.I. does it again, another

world title with a super consistent season, some big wins, lots of

finals and, of course, some huge time ripping!

Irons joins a select few, with three or more world titles, Santa

Barbara’s style master Tom Curren won three, Australian twin fin

extraordinaire Mark Richards has three and Kelly Slater, the surfing

freak of nature, has six in the men’s.

The tour now heads for the North Shore of Hawaii for the

ever-legendary Banzai Pipeline. The pressure is off since the world

title has already been resolved. Last year, it was who ever beat each

other, A.I. or Slates in the final. If there’s a swell, this could be

a big free-for-all for those final placings.

The Western Surfing Assn. held event No. 4 way down south at Ponto

in Carlsbad over the weekend. The surf was in the 2- to 3-foot range,

with a few line drivers and a few close outs too.

In the women’s division, Surf City resident Cheryl Christofaro was

rippin’ it up, taking first place honors. In the senior men’s

division, Huntington’s Troy Bertrand and Kelly Stevens made the

final, placing fourth and fifth respectively with a couple of nice

exchanges. In Grandmasters, the Figster found a couple of rights off

the river mouth for the victory, and the “Slickster” Pat Schlick

finished fourth on a pretty glassy day with a few raindrops as the

storm went by.

The question is, where was Huntington’s Jay Boldt, who won the

Western Surfing Assn. event at the Hook at Pleasure Point last month,

tearing apart a couple rights? No doubt, he was probably taking

advantage of the 6 to 7 feet of snow Mammoth got in the last storm.

Locally, Big Bear’s Bear Mountain and Snow Summit and, over in the

San Gabriels, Mountain High and Baldy have opened up their 2004-05

skiing and boarding seasons with a foot and a half of snow. That’s

the earliest opening I can remember, as they usually get started

around Thanksgiving. But with Mother Nature’s help and an El Nino

season expected, it could be an all-timer on the slopes this winter.

At the beaches, the water is starting to drop to the low 60s. Uh

oh, full suit time. 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.