The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Longboard Qualifying Series (LQS) 1-Star PLA Pro Championships saw local talent Taylor Jensen (Oceanside, CA), 25, take out the men’s division, while fellow San Diegan Cori Schumacher (Cardiff, CA), 34, clinched her second consecutive women’s ASP North America Longboard Title when she won the PLA Pro Championships presented by Gidget in the peaky two-to-three foot wind-swell on offer at South Oceanside Pier.

Jensen, who grew up surfing Oceanside’s beachbreak, was trailing in third place behind Tony Silvagni (Kure Beach, NC), 22, but battled back to overtake the lead by combining two lengthy noserides and progressive turns to eventually place the field in a combination situation before claiming the PLA Pro Championships, the last event on the 2009 regional series.

“I just lucked into a wave,” Jensen said. “Brendan (White) took the one before it and I just sort of lucked into it and it worked out.”

Jensen, who has also been living in Australia, has been splitting his time between the two nations and was thrilled to take out a win at home after traveling back from Australia.

“I was getting really excited about this contest on the flight over,” Jensen said. “There is hardly ever a contest here, so to win one is pretty special.”

Jensen dominated several ASP LQS events this year, claiming three contest victories while finishing No. 11 on the ASP World Longboard Tour. After capping his season off with an additional victory, he’ll look to next year where he’ll be competing as one of the world’s finest longboarders on the 2010 ASP WLT.

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Joey Ray Hawkins, a 1990s world longboard champion and Huntington Beach surf legend, was recently arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of methamphetamine while sitting in his car with a loaded 9 mm handgun near the city’s youth shelter, officials said.

Hawkins, 39, who won the ASP world longboard championship in France in 1992, pleaded not guilty Monday to two felony charges of possessing methamphetamine while armed and of possessing the drug.

“He is very well known – one of the few world champions in Huntington Beach,” John Lyman, a Surf City local since the 1960s, said after hearing about the arrest. “He never really took his surfing championship and did anything with it …He just kind of faded into the scene.”

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There is a new buzz in the landscaping world — residential gardens that incorporate beautiful plants that thrive in our local climate and limit the necessity for irrigation and maintenance. The Surfrider Foundation and landscaping expert Douglas Kent have taken this concept a step further to include simple design ideas that will dramatically reduce runoff from properties that pollute creeks and beaches in a new manual available now for novice and expert gardeners: Ocean Friendly Gardens: A How-To Gardening Guide to Help Restore a Healthy Coast and Ocean.

Taking cues from the Surfrider Foundation’s “Ocean Friendly Gardens” program, the book describes how green-thumbs can help restore our precious oceans by applying simple practices to their gardening and landscaping routines including CPR – conserving the use of water, fertilizers and pesticides, increasing permeability so the landscape or garden holds more water, and developing water retention areas.

“With a growing trend of creating beautiful gardens that used native plants and other ‘climate-adapted’ vegetation, we wanted to show people how they could also help reduce water pollution,” said Chad Nelsen, Surfrider Foundation’s Environmental Director. “The result is a fantastic program

The Surfrider Foundation’s “Ocean Friendly Gardens” program developed from members’ personal contributions to their gardens and landscapes in an effort to restore and protect our oceans, waves and beaches. The results were unique and beautiful residential gardens that attracted the admiration and curiosity of the community.

Ocean Friendly Gardens: A How-To Gardening Guide to Help Restore a Healthy Coast and Ocean is available now at Amazon.com