Hobgood makes the most out of very little

Everything was in position for a thrilling men’s final Sunday afternoon at the Honda U.S. Open of Surfing. The waves were just slow to arrive.

In the end, former world champion C.J. Hobgood of Florida performed well enough in the small, inconsistent surf alongside the Huntington Beach Pier, providing the cushion in a 12.60-11.17 victory over teenage phenom Jeremy Flores of France.

“I have been thinking and dreaming for many years of winning this event,” Hobgood said. “I had a look at the draw and I had a look at what was going on, and I just felt like there was a big opportunity there.”

Neither finalist caught a wave in the first eight minutes of the final. At the halfway point of the 30-minute heat, only three waves had been scored.

With six minutes remaining, Flores was finally able to catch a wave that allowed him to try an assortment of tricks, but Hobgood bettered that ride a couple minutes later, working a long right inside and then snapping a hard turn off the lip. Hobgood earned a score of 7.33 out of a possible 10 on the ride, his highest wave score of the final.

Flores, a 19-year-old from Reunion Island, caught two more waves in the closing minutes, but he wasn’t able to produce a wave score in the seven-point range required to catch Hobgood.

“If I would have gotten a wave with some options for some turns, I would definitely not be bummed to lose,” Flores said. “It’s just that I didn’t get the opportunity to do something good.”

Despite the loss, Flores was still one of the better surfers at the 10-day event. In three earlier rounds Sunday, he produced three of the top nine heat scores of the contest. Flores won the World Qualifying Series last year, becoming the youngest surfer to qualify for the World Championship Tour. In five starts on the WCT, he has two top-10 finishes and is tied for No. 12 on the WCT.

Hobgood, 28, is a veteran of the WCT, but is ranked No. 25. He has won three of the six WQS events he has entered this year, including three of four in North America. He moved up to No. 18 on the qualifying tour after entering the event at No. 41, giving him a second option for re-qualifying for the WCT.

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Tonino Benson of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, won the junior final with 13.94 points, out-surfing Chris Waring of Seal Beach (12.87), Jordy Smith of South Africa (12.17) and Mason Ho of Sunset Beach, Hawaii.

Benson, 17, was the 2005 International Surfing Assn. junior world champion and won the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. open men’s national title earlier this year at Trestles. The youngest competitor in the final, Benson is in his first year on the junior circuit.

Colin McPhillips of San Clemente won in men’s longboard.

dan.arritt@latimes.com