WET ‘N’ WILD WITH ROCKIN’ FIG:

The first surf event for the men’s 2009 world championship tour has finished in Australia. The $340,000 Quiksilver Pro was run in some macking 6- to 10-foot Cyclone surf at Kirra Point for the final two days. Stormy conditions with closeouts and some big barrels were thrown out to the boys as well as side-shore winds and rain squalls, too. Nothing could hold back 27-year-old Australian Joel Parkinson, as he showed his tube-riding skills in the heavy conditions. “Parko” matched up with the 2007 world champ, his buddy, Mick Fanning in the first semifinal that had to be the heat of the event, as both surfers were getting barreled out of their minds. Parko took the early lead with a couple of nice bowls and looked like he had it. Fanning snapped his board in half, which could have been curtains, but switched boards and then got two big-set sick tubes and took over the lead and looked like he had it in the bag. Then Parkinson found a suck-out drainer barrel, got super deep — you could even see his red jersey through the lip — came out, and scored the first perfect 10 of the contest and was on to the final after the classic duel. Meanwhile in the other semi, 22-year-old Brazilian Adriano De Souza beat Aussie Taj Burrow pretty handily to make his first championship-tour final ever. So the final heat, right off the bat, first-wave Parkinson gets a back-door tube, goes for a floater and buckles his board, but scores an 8.83 for the lead. No problem, a switch of equipment, a ride back to the line-up on the ski and ready to go. De Souza had some nice tubes, fell on a couple waves and was needing something big, playing catch up. Again Parko finds a throwing right-hander, with reckless abandon, takes off right in the tube, gets way, way, way back, and voila(!) pops out for another perfect 10 and the win! He’s stoked, carried up the beach, the giant home-town crowd is cheering and loving it. Parkinson says at the awards ceremony that he’s been training hard in the off-season not just surfing but working out, too, and it showed. Other notables: Ventura’s Dane Reynolds lost out in Round 4 to Taj, some think otherwise in a super-tight one. Nine-time world champ, Kelly Slater lost to young gun Aussie Julian Wilson who was ripping, but got the better set waves too in Round 3. And Round 2 casualties were Huntington Beach’s Timmy Reyes getting ousted by Brazilian Jihad Khodr and San Clemente’s Chris Ward losing to Hawaiian rookie Dustin Barca. Next up, the chilly waters of Bells Beachfor the Rip Curl Pro April 7 to 18. Spring break activities are going big-time at Bear Mountain Friday. KROQ-FM is hosting a big gig with Vampire Weekend and Iglu and Hartley playing live on the sun deck mid-day. Still, a one- to three-foot basewith spring-like conditions. See ya there. Fig over and out.

RICK FIGNETTI 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.