Joe Surf: Dangers and limits real and imagined

Surfers find themselves dealing with more than just waves in and around Huntington Beach these days.

Of course, there are the juvenile great white sharks hanging around Sunset Beach and Bolsa Chica. And not that you don’t already know this, but they are getting bigger. They’ll only be “juvenile” for so long.

We had that invasion of tiny red crabs, or tuna crabs, that covered the shores of Orange County last year. They look like tiny lobsters, and they do pinch, if you try to paddle through them.

More recently, there was that brown sea foam floating near shore, but it was deemed an algae-based substance and nontoxic.

And just this past weekend there was a neon green blob in the surf just south of the Huntington Beach Pier. But according to Huntington Beach Marine Safety Lt. Claude Panis, it turned out to be nothing serious.

The city turned the investigation over to the Coast Guard, which determined it was liquid typically used as a distress marker by planes or boats. A container that might have held the liquid was spotted near the pier, leaving investigators to believe somebody tossed if off the pier.

There was some talk that lifeguards cleared the water when the blob was spotted, but Panis said that didn’t happen, and that the nontoxic blob dissipated when it hit the surf.

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Big Wave Awards break

The World Surf League held its 16th annual Big Wave Awards at the Grove Theater in Anaheim on Saturday, and while all the winners certainly made their marks, there was one particular award that was especially noteworthy.

Keala Kennelly won the Pure Scot Barrel of the Year Award for her massive tube ride at Teahupoo, Tahiti, marking the first time a woman has won any open-gender category at the Big Wave Awards.

“When I was a little girl, I kept getting told I could not do things because I was a girl,” Kennelly told worldsurfleague.com. “I was told that women can’t surf, and I was told this about getting barreled, surfing big waves, surfing Pipeline, paddling in a Jaws, and the list goes on. So who I really, really want to thank is everyone who told me you can’t do that because you’re a woman. Because that drove me to dedicate my life to proving you wrong, and it’s been so damn fun.”

Kennelly, 37, is from Kauai. She told Surfer magazine about her experience:

“I had been waiting all day, so by the time I actually got a chance to get a wave, the wind had picked up, and it wasn’t as clean. That was making me a bit nervous, but (I) knew I wasn’t going to be happy if I watched all day and didn’t get a wave of my own. I passed on a much smaller one that had some chop on the face, and when I saw that one standing up I knew it was going to be a bomb, so I was like, ‘OK, this is it. This one is for you Salope’ — Salope is a nickname I call a dear friend of mine that is battling Stage 4 cancer. I let go of the rope, and I dropped down into it.

“I had to come into it real straight-on because when it sucks below sea level it creates a trench that you don’t want to come at sideways. If you do, you can catch a rail. Once I got through that trench I bottom-turned up into the barrel and stuck my line. I was pretty determined to make it out of the barrel, but the wave turned mutant. The west bowl bent back at me at a 45-degree angle right as the bottom of the wave dropped out. It just swallowed me whole.

“I got pinned on my back against the reef and was held there for a while. I came up and got a breath just in time to get the next wave on the head. It slammed me on the reef with so much force it blew my helmet off. The whole left side of my body hit really hard, and I felt like I broke my elbow and my hand. But after that wave I had so much adrenaline running through me, part of me wanted to go back out and get another one, but I was bleeding and in a lot of pain.”

Other winners at the Big Wave Awards included: Billabong Ride of the Year — Shane Dorian; Paddle Award — Aaron Gold; TAG Heuer XXL Biggest Wave Award — Yuri Soledade; TAG Heuer Wipeout of the Year Award — Niccolo Porcella; Surfline Men’s Overall Performance Award — Shane Dorian; Women’s Best Overall Performance Award — Andrea Moller; 2015-16 WSL Big Wave Tour Champion — Greg Long.

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Keeping up with Kanoa

Huntington Beach’s Kanoa Igarashi, 18, spent six weeks in Australia for the first three contests in the World Surf League’s World Championship Tour, finishing equal-ninth in one and equal-13th twice, putting him in a tie for 18th place in the world championship rankings.

But with about three weeks between the last WSL contest in Australia and the next one starting May 10 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Igarashi didn’t come straight home to Huntington. Instead, he spent a week in Fiji.

So you want to be a pro surfer?

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Court is in session

Courtney Conlogue returned home to Santa Ana after the three WSL contests, and certainly is feeling pretty good about things. Conlogue advanced to the final heat in all three contests, finishing first once and second twice, and currently is ranked No. 1 in the world rankings.

Even better news for Conlogue is knowing that the next contest in Rio is one she won last year.

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JOE HAAKENSON is a Huntington Beach-based sports writer and editor. He may be reached at joe@juvecreative.com.