WET ‘N’ WILD WITH ROCKIN’ FIG:

Last week on the North Shore the surf was macking — 15 to 25 feet as they ran the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach. It cleaned up and dropped a little bit for the last day, but was still super big.

In the final, power surfer from Brazil Leonardo Neves was leading all the way till the last couple of minutes, when local Hawaiian big-wave shredder Makua Rothman caught a bomb set in the shifty conditions. Rothman tore that wave up with some big power slashes and a cover-up to score an incredible 9.5 ride, an almost-perfect score to steal the win and $15,000. New world champ Mick Fanning was third, and fellow Aussie Daniel Ross fourth (and stoked to make it that far, because it gave him enough points to qualify for the WCT next season).

Having some great heats and placing equal fifth were former world champ Sunny Garcia and Aussie Adrian Buchan. Losing in the quarterfinals was Ventura’s Dane Reynolds and South Africa’s Jordy Smith, who also qualified for the WCT; Hawaiian charger’s Bruce Irons, T.J. Baron and Australian Taj Burrow. And H.B.’s Timmy Reyes had some big heats but went down in a tough Round-5 loss.

The Billabong Pipeline Masters is already underway, and some of the top-seeded guns are scheduled to surf right off the bat — Fanning, Burrow, and eight-time world champ Kelly Slater. Hawaiian Roy Powers got a wild card into the event after winning the Hawaiian Reef Pro at Haleiwa, the first event of the Vans Triple Crown. Currently Australian Bede Durbidge is first in the Triple Crown standings, with Powers second, Fanning third, Buchan fourth and Rothman moving up to the fifth spot with that win.

The women are on for their last WCT contest at Maui — the Billabong Pro at Honolua Bay, which has been pumping, too. Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore and Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich are neck-and-neck in the points battle, and both have been advancing.

Here in Cali, that northwest swell last week was the biggest in a couple of years. Even a lot of spots on the West Coast broke super-sizable: Mavericks was 30 feet plus; Ghost Trees 30 to 40 feet plus, where NorCal surfer Peter Davi drowned doing paddle-ins after his leash broke. Davi was a longtime big-wave surfer and fisherman in the Monterey Bay area who spent a lot of time in the islands too. They had a nice paddle-out ceremony for him last weekend attended by hundreds of friends and family.

Rincon was also going off, with double-overhead rights a week ago, with even Slates flying in from Hawaii for the swell and former three-time world champ and style master Tom Curren laying out some speed lines. It was a little smaller and cleaner the next day, where even the Figster got one of his best sessions in years there.

H.B. never got that good — too walled out, but Swamis was 15 feet and happening, and Blacks Beach was looking like Sunset, Hawaii. La Jolla was triple overhead with some huge lefts. And Todos Santos off Mexico was huge.

And yup, Surf City’s big-wave brother combo, the Turners, were doing tow-ins at some secret spots last week too.

Well that’s it for now. See ya!

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.