Wet ‘N’ Wild with Rockin’ Fig:

The SIMA Surfing America U.S.A. Surf Championships, held at Huntington Pier, had some exceptional surf.

A good-size overhead south swell hit for the weekdays, followed by a good northwest swell hit for the weekend with killer shape and hot weather conditions in the 80s.

In the boys 18 and under, San Clemente’s Kolohe Andino was on fire, throwing some mean tail slides for the win over East Coaster Evan Thompson.

Andino recorded another victory in the boys 16 and under as well, this time taking out Santa Barbara’s Conner Coffin to wrap up a double, double, two U.S. titles.

In the girls 18 and under age bracket, Newport Beach’s Kaleigh Gilchrist had the moves to take her first U.S. title over Courtney Conlogue, a tough competitor. Conlogue has been pretty much unstoppable this summer, winning the U.S. Open and taking a gold in Costa Rica.

In boys 14 and under, Santa Barbara’s Parker Coffin was getting all the sets and won, while local hottie Kainoa Igarashi was busting some turns, placing a not very distant third. Igarashi also placed second to Capo’s Jacob Davis in the boys 12 and under division too, showing he’s one to be reckoned with.

In men’s, Huntington Beach’s Matt Taylor surfed strong, coming up with a perfect season winning the West Coast title and the U.S. title, too. Scott Shimoda from Hawaii won masters, while Seal Beach’s Chas Wickwire took top honors in seniors.

In legends, the Figster led all the way till the last 10 seconds of the final when Carlbad’s John Silver snatched the win by a mere .07 of a point on his last ride. And in senior long board, the brothers Mike and Terry Gillard took a one, two punch to close out a pretty spectacular U.S. Championships.

Next year it sounds like Surfing America will have its finals at Lower Trestles after just winning the bid for the premiere spot, just recently. The Chris Hawk fundraiser went big, raising more than $14,000 , with about 500 friends showing up at the new Shorebreak Hotel, which is killer.

One of our longtime surfing, explorer and world traveler Steve Dankin passed away last week. Steve took many trips to El Salvador and Mainland Mexico and was one of the forerunners in discovering new spots in the late 1970s and ’80s and will be missed.

Also, a tough week, as another Huntington Beach ripper, John Kissel, was doing some cliff jumping at the river and had a tragic accident and died. Kissel once got a full page surf shot in Sports Illustrated magazine, of a nice cut back at the O.P. Pro Surf contest. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family.

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.