To this day, his shop, his newspaper articles and his surfing reflect someone who's passion shows in all that he does. Below is one of his columns about surfing appearing in the Huntington Beach Independent.

When you visit the store on Main Street, not far from Bob "The Greek" Bolen's Surfboard Museum & Huntington Beach Realty on the same side of the street, you see that surfers find ways to keep their passion for surfing in their lives by building careers that allow them to be near the surf and experience it first hand. Many own their companies or build careers in businesses in the surfing industry where like-minded souls go surfing and the board room refers to the place at the office where the surfboards are kept.

In Rockin Fig Surf Headquarters, there's tons of surf gear for serious surfers. Boards, wax, fins, suits and clothing items for the beach fill the shop. The guy with a smile, the really nice dude who likes to talk surfing will help you with your surfing needs. Many days you can see him sitting outside the shop in a chair where he can keep an eye on business but enjoy the weather as well. Be sure to stop by and support a genuine HB surfer on the sunny side of Surf City. Limited street coin meter parking is located in front of the store but there's a large parking garage across the street with 30 minutes free parking.

WET AND WILD WITH ROCKIN FIG

Surf gets going down there
by RICK FIGNETTI

It's kinda nice to have a week with some sunshine for a change, in this record setting year for rainfall. Seems like everything is still drying out and getting back to normal, although that ocean water still has a tinge of murkiness to it.

The local mountains got tons of snow from the last storm as it stalled there -- eight feet in three days -- boosting the base levels at Mountain High Resort up to an incredible 12 feet. Up at Big Bear, they picked up a few feet too, and the skiing and boarding has been unbelievable with a packed powder surface.

We picked a pretty decent west swell the first part of the week on the West Coast and it was firin' with overhead sets at our Surf City beaches.

Over in the land down under, it's summertime and the start of the World Championship Tour at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast. The waiting period started March 1 and goes 'till the 13th. The men's Quicksilver Pro and the women's Roxy Pro will showcase the best surfers in the world trying to get a jump in the ratings race.

In the men's competition, wildcard slots were given to Aussie ripper Luke Munro -- who last year took out Mick Fanning, one of the favorites in the contest -- while the other wildcard, Ventura's Dane Reynolds, who's known for boosting some big airs, upset world champ Andy Irons in the U.S. at Trestles, so both are dangerous low seeds.

Of course, the top men's seeds are A.I., the Gold Coast's Joel Parkinson and six-time world champ Kelly Slater.

In the women's competition, Peruvian Sofia Mulanovich will be leading the charge, defending her world title this year against Kauai's Rochelle Ballard and Australian Chelsea Georgeson, the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds.

We'll keep ya posted on results.

At the big five-star World Qualifying Series event, the Hang Loose Pro in Brazil, Santa Barbara's Bobby Martinez took first place honors with one of the highest two-wave scores ever for a World Qualifying Series final, 19.85 out of a possible 20. Martinez is one of the U.S.'s most decorated amateur surfers with lots of national titles under his belt. He is No. 1 in series ratings and is trying to follow in the footsteps of Huntington's Timmy Reyes and San Clemente's Chris Ward, who made the big show and are in Oz with the World Championship Tour for their rookie seasons.

Back at the Hang Loose Pro, Brazil's Dunga Neto was second, while Americans Nathaniel Curran from Ventura and Laguna Beach's Mikey Todd placed equal fifth. Not a bad start!

It looks like veteran surfer Pat O'Connell, 33, is retiring after 15 years as a surfing pro. The Laguna Beach resident finished as high as 10th in the World Championship Tour standings one year, and had a shot at the world title, which his buddy Slater won that year.

O'Connell is known for his surfing in the movie "Endless Summer II," going around the world in search of perfect waves. He'll still do some of the local World Qualifying Series events.

And a sad note, the original surfer girl, Sandra Dee -- who played Gidget in the early surf movies -- passed away last week. She was married to pop icon Bobby Darin, and was known for bringing gals into the surf scene in the early '60s. See another Gidget who made a guest appearance in Huntington Beach.

That's it for now, see ya. Fig over and out.
 

RICK FIGNETTI is an nine-time West Coast champion, has announced the U.S. Open of Surfing the last 11 years and has been the KROQ-FM surfologist for the last 18 years, doing morning surf reports. He owns a surf shop on Main Street in downtown Huntington Beach called Rockin Fig Surf. You can reach him at (714) 536-1058.