WET AND WILD WITH ROCKIN’ FIG:East Coast precedes Pipe

The 2007 Assn. of Surfing Professional’s World Qualifying Series is already underway, as the O’Neill Sebastian Inlet Pro concluded last weekend.

One hundred and forty-four of the top-ranked surfers from around the world competed in the 2- to 3-foot, wind-blown Florida surf.

A good-sized crowd was on hand to see an all-Floridian final, with Satellite Beach WCT standout C.J. Hobgood blowing some tail-out moves to score an 8.33 wave in the see-saw battle to win it. That’s back-to-back wins for the Hobgoods, with brother Damien winning last year, but falling short earlier in the day this year.

Hot on his heels was new World Championship Tour qualifier Gabe Kling from St. Augustine, who was surfing pedal to the metal the whole contest and took second. Former WCT vet Shea Lopez busted some air moves, too, and some solid cutties to place third.

Asher Nolan, who scored a wave in the 9-zone but couldn’t back it up with another moderate score, finished fourth. San Clemente’s Mike Losness lost in the semis and Tanner Gudauskas was a standout till round 32. Some world-class surfing was definitely seen in the choppy waters for the start of the New Year. Next up will be the ASP’s $75,000 WQS 4-star Monster Energy Drink Pipeline Pro, presented by Billabong on the North Shore of Hawaii.

The waiting period starts Jan. 27 and goes till Feb. 9. The contest will be run on the best four days of surf.

One-hundred-sixty surfers from 11 nations will compete at the legendary Banzai Pipeline for the big win, cash and valuable ratings points.

Last year’s winner, the “stylish” Rob Machado, is entered along with a strong contingency of Hawaiian surfers like Pancho Sullivan, the “Power Master;” former WCTchamp Derek Ho; heavy-tube rider from da’ Big Island, Shane Dorian; big-wave standout Makua Rothman and the hot local boy who lives right at Pipe, Jamie O’Brien.

Should be some good-sized surf for this one ‘cause the North Shore’s been pumping recently.

That blast of arctic air is still hanging out — we had some record-breaking low overnight temps recorded earlier in the week.. Needless to say, the water temperatures have been dropping, too, to somewhere in the mid-50s. Ouch! And on top of that, there’s not much surf at all.

The local mountains did pick up four inches of new snow for you boarders, and with the Santa Ana wind conditions, they’ve been blowing more artificial stuff to build those base depths and soften the coverage to machine-groomed packed powder.

Stay warm — the Figster, over and out.