Octopi hold on to title

RICK FIGNETTI

Last weekend was the clash of the Titans for supremacy on the West

Coast between the Orange County Octopus and the San Diego Sea Lions

in team surfing.

After a solid run against the other teams, the ones with the best

records went into sudden death two-out-of-three surf outs to

determine this year’s winner of the Quiksilver California Cup.

In game one, O.C. took the win with some action-packed surfing.

San Diego came up with a big win in game two, forcing the tiebreaker.

In a super-tight nail biter, O.C. had some heavy hitters like Pat

Gudauskas, who busted out an 8-point-plus ride in the first half with

a radical tail-out move, and took the first-half lead with the help

of his teammates. In the second half, O.C. went with an all-star

lineup of former World Championship Tour surfer Pat O’Connell, H.B.’s

Brett Simpson, Danny Nichols and Shaun Ward -- all tearing it up and

racking up the important team points too.

A late surge by U.S. champ Rob Machado, pulling a 9.5, and “the

Stanger” Che Stang, getting an over-8 score, couldn’t turn the tides

as O.C. took a close 103.25-100.25 decision.

So it’s two years in a row that the Octopus has taken the title

with excellent surfing and the depth of the star-studded team.

Laguna’s O’Connell was awarded MVP of the game and the season with

his big slashes and a couple of insane roundhouse cutbacks to help

clinch the title for the O.C.

San Diego’s Machado got the most radical award with some of his

crowd-dazzling waves and was the standout of the Sea Lions’ squad.

That’s it ‘til next season, but there should be some TV coverage

of the events soon.

Over at the Billabong Pro at Teahupoo, the waves have been a

perfect 4-to-10 feet, spitting barrels over the reef. History was

made as six-time world champ Kelly Slater scored two perfect 10s in

the final for 20 out of 20 possible points.

Slates was on a roll throughout the event, getting lots of perfect

scores on the way to beating C.J. Hobgood in the quarters and Taj

Burrow in the semis. In the final, Slater had a super-late drop

freefall, landing sideways but somehow holding on in the barrel,

somehow recovering, still getting deeper and deeper, then getting

spit out and making it, catching one of the best waves ever ridden in

the history of the ASP.

Slater later said it was one of the highlights of his career and

one of the heaviest barrels he’s had, making him a three-time winner

at Teahupoo.

Second was Damien Hobgood, who was also ripping insanely, beating

goofy-foot Hawaiian Freddy Boy Patacchia in the quarters and 2004

finalist Aussie Nathan Hedge in the semis. Damien was getting some

deep ones, but got lip-impacted and slammed hard halfway through the

final, dislocating his shoulder. He had to be helped outta the

lineup.

The final placing moves Damien into a tie for second in the

overall standings with world champ Andy Irons, who unbelievably lost

in round four.

It sounds like bad news for Damien; the injury was worse than

expected. He had to get shoulder surgery this week and will miss the

Globe Pro at Tavarua, Fiji, which is scheduled to start this week

already with waiting period lingering.

The surf’s been up here at Surf City’s beaches. Hope you’re

getting some barrels too.

Fig, over and out

* RICK FIGNETTI is a 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.