Kelly Slater’s Week-Long Visit to Southland Pays Off in Big Way : Surfing: Florida high school senior takes home $30,600 for winning finals at Lower Trestles.

Later this week, Kelly Slater will finish a day of classes at Cocoa Beach (Fla.) High School, stop by his bank and deposit a check for $30,600.

Not bad for a week of surfing in Southern California.

Slater, 18, competing in only his seventh contest as a professional, scored a perfect 50 on one of his five waves to win in the finals of the $100,000 Body Glove surfing competition at Lower Trestles.

When asked what he would do with his prize money, Slater said: “Keep it.”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about giving some of it to the Surfrider foundation (a California environmental group),” Slater said. “And I’ll never get around to doing it unless I say I will. I don’t know how much I’ll donate yet, but I want to help.”

Slater, a four-time U.S. amateur champion and winner of the 1989 Op Junior contest, edged Chris Brown of Santa Barbara for the title Sunday. Charlie Kuhn of Indian Harbor, Fla., was third and local favorite Bud Llamas of Huntington Beach fourth.

Most of the crowd booed when Llamas’ finish was announced, but he was only mildly disappointed.

“I just wanted to show these young guys I wasn’t dead yet,” said Llamas, 29.

Llamas scored a perfect 50 on a wave with 12 minutes 40 seconds remaining in the heat. Slater caught a wave 20 seconds later and also scored a 50.

“These conditions are the best I’ve seen at any contest,” Slater said.

Slater won all but one heat of the competition, finishing second to Brown in the quarterfinals. The top two surfers in each heat advance to the next round.

“Chris shook me up a little bit there,” Slater said. “That made me surf a lot harder.”

Brown said he didn’t mind finishing second to Slater in the finals.

“It’s nice to see Kelly here,” Brown said. “Those people who haven’t seen him surf got to see what he has to offer. I think he’s a future world champion.”

Mike Stewart, formerly of Anaheim and now of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, took home $5,000 for winning the bodyboarding division. Stewart, the tour points leader and two-time world champion, beat Kyle Maligro of Kalaheo, Hawaii, Ben Severson of Wahiawa, Hawaii, and Chris Tennberg of Kalaheo, Hawaii, in the finals.

Though he was eliminated in the quarterfinals, Dino Andino of San Clemente maintained his lead in the PSAA points standings by 286 over Brown.

Andino, who has finished second on the tour the last three years, was upset with his surfing in a quarterfinal loss to Chuy Reyna of Oceanside and Darren Brilhart of Costa Mesa.

“I blew it,” Andino said. “All I needed was a fourth wave. I’m really mad at myself.”

Other Orange County surfers eliminated in the quarterfinals were Vince De La Pena and Pat O’Connell of Laguna Niguel, who won the previous tour stop at Malibu two weeks ago. Brilhart and Joey Zintel of Huntington Beach lost in the semifinals.

Add Dino: Andino just finished filming scenes for the movie “Riders on the Storm,” featuring Patrick Swayze and Gary Busey.

Andino spent two days in mid-August filming surfing scenes at Manhattan Beach. He plays a surf gang leader named Psycho-stick.

“You have to laugh,” Andino said.

The movie, about a band of bank-robbing surfers, will be released next summer.

Matt Archbold of San Clemente, also a top surfer on the PSAA tour, is a stunt double for Swayze in all the surfing scenes.

Andino said he surfed with Swayze and Busey between scenes.

“Busey is a really good surfer,” Andino said. “He surprised me.”

Surfing Notes

Sunday morning’s quarterfinals were delayed nearly five hours by fog. The fog cleared around 12:45 p.m. and surfers competed on six- to eight-foot waves the rest of the afternoon. . . . Milo Meyers and Larry Krauss, both of Emerald City, won their respective heats in the Body Glove dealers surf competition. . . . The next stop on the PSAA tour will be Oct. 3-7 at Sebastian Inlet, Fla.

Results

Finals

Surfing

1. Kelly Slater, Cocoa Beach, Fla.; 2. Chris Brown, Santa Barbara; 3. Charlie Kuhn, Indian Harbor, Fla.; 4. Bud Llamas, Huntington Beach.

Bodyboarding

1. Mike Stewart, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; 2. Kyle Maligro, Kalaheo, Hawaii; 3. Ben Severson, Honolulu; 4. Chris Tennberg, Kalaheo, Hawaii.