Surf Classic at San Clemente : Hogan Recovers From Injury, Rides a Wave of Success

When the 1988 Professional Surfing Assn. of America season started, San Clemente High School graduate Jim Hogan was hoping for big things after finishing second in the Professional Surfing Assn. of America overall standings in 1987.

All of that changed last June when Hogan, 26, suffered a hyperextended back, a punctured cervical disk and an injured sciatic nerve and a cervical disk while practicing near his home in San Clemente.

Hogan fought off the pain to finish second to fellow San Clemente High graduate Dino Andino in the Del Taco/Naugles Surf Classic last July in San Clemente, but failed to get into another final for the rest of the season.

“It was just a matter of willpower that I was able to finish as high as I did in San Clemente last year,” said Hogan, who will be competing in this year’s $35,000 Surf Classic, which starts today near the San Clemente pier.

“I stayed completely out of the water for as many as 2 1/2 to three weeks at a time between meets after getting hurt, but when it came time for me to compete, I would block the pain completely out mentally and do the best I could with what I had.

“I made it into the semifinals several times after San Clemente, but even though I was pleased with having finished 1988 in third place overall (in the PSAA standings), I wasn’t getting into the finals like I should have and that disappointed me. And my injuries had a lot to do with that.”

The pain and lack of success continued during the early part of the 1989 season for Hogan; he finished 17th in a PSAA event Feb. 26 at Isabella, Puerto Rico, and 49th at Haleiwa, Hawaii. But after he received a cortisone shot in early May, Hogan’s fortunes changed.

Freed from the excruciating pain caused by his multiple back injuries, Hogan scored his first victory in two years by taking an Assn. of Surfing Professionals event at St. Augustine, Fla., just a few days after getting his cortisone shot.

Hogan’s return to top form continued on May 21, when he finished fourth in a PSAA event in Santa Cruz, Then, after he came in ninth in a June 4 PSAA event in Oceanside, he went to Smyrna, Fla., where he finished third in an ASP World Tour contest.

“My confidence is 100 percent back, back where it was (in 1985) when I won 19 straight heats (a PSAA record),” Hogan said. “I feel like a little kid with candy, and I’m not about ready to let anyone take it away from me.”

Notes

Dino Andino and Jim Hogan will be joined by two-time defending PSAA champion Mike Lambresi of Oceanside and Bud Llamas of Huntington Beach, this year’s top-seeded surfer, among others, when the top 32 seeded surfers of the meet start competition in fifth-round action Saturday at 7 a.m. after drawing byes for the first four rounds. . . . Andino, who won the Surf and Street Mechanix Junior Pro Championship Saturday at Huntington Beach, came back the following day to win the $2,000 first prize in a contest near Ensenada, Mexico. . . . Competition will start at 7 a.m. each day through Sunday, with the finals set for Sunday at 2:20 p.m. . . . . The surfing winner will get $6,000, with the runner-up getting $3,000 and the third-place finisher $2,000. . . . Another two-time PSAA champion, Mike Stewart of Anaheim, will lead the bodyboarders in competition that starts Friday at 12:40 p.m. Stewart will be challenged by his longtime rival, second-seeded Ben Severson of Honolulu, and third-seed Jay Reale of San Clemente. Bodyboarding finals will be Sunday at 1:50 p.m., with the winner getting a $1,500 first prize.