Hogan Makes His Move Just in Time to Win Surfing Event

Jim Hogan could wait only so long in the Dive N’ Surf Pro-Am Sunday at Salt Creek Beach Park in Laguna Niguel.

While his three opponents battled for waves in the final heat of the five-day Professional Surfing Assn. of America tournament, Hogan of San Clemente went farther out to sea waiting for the bigger ones.

Hogan said he was worried his strategy wasn’t working. His competitors, Gary Clisby and Scott Farnsworth, both of Huntington Beach, and Todd Chesser of San Diego, were catching more waves, so he became more aggressive.

“I thought I was in dead last,” he said. “I just started paddling for anything I could get.”

Hogan, who won $6,075, got his first tour victory since 1987, when he won three and finished second in the final standings.

Hogan, 26, said he is still bothered by a back injury he suffered practicing in June 1988, but he ignores the pain during competition.

Clisby, who finished second, completed one of the most exciting rides in the semifinals, cutting and gliding through one of the day’s larger waves.

Dino Andino of San Clemente didn’t make it past the quarterfinals when he and John Parmenter of Huntington Beach took the same wave and were each given a major interference penalty, in effect disqualifying each other. It was the third penalty for Andino, the third-seeded surfer, in the last two tour events. Last month in San Clemente, Andino was penalized twice, once in the finals, and finished fourth.

This time, Andino thought he had established position on the wave. The two surfers collided and Parmenter fell, leaving Andino alone on the wave.

Andino said he was upset because the mishap cost him valuable points in the tour’s standings.

“It’s worse to lose when you are surfing good,” he said. “I felt I could take any wave and rip it.”

Parmenter said he has had enough of Andino’s blocking tactics. Parmenter said he has lost to Andino too many times by backing off. This time, he said, he didn’t.

Notes

By finishing third, Todd Chesser took the lead in the PSAA standings with 3,908 points after six of 11 events. Dino Andino is second with 3,570 points, Jim Hogan has 3,563, Richie Rudolph of Florida has 3,532 and Mike Lambresi of Oceanside has 3,474. . . . Mike Stewart, who splits time between Huntington Beach and Kailua, Hawaii, finished first in bodyboarding and won $1,625. He was followed by Dave Cunniff of Oceanside, Ben Severson of Honolulu and Jay Reale of San Clemente.