Garcia Quietly Gets the Job Done

A week ago, Sunny Garcia stood in almost the same spot in the media area of the scaffolding overlooking the swells on the south side of Huntington Beach pier and bitterly ripped Australian Michael Campbell, who had just beaten him in the final of the Bluetorch Pro.

Sunday, Garcia lashed out only at the waves, carving his trademark powerful turns and slashing cutbacks that sent buckets of water spraying in wide arcs as he dominated the final of the Panasonic ShockWave U.S. Open.

Garcia, of Hawaii, set the tone for the day when he caught an overhead left near the pier, sliced a huge turn up the face of the wave and then hurtled off the top, floating down with the cascading section of whitewater. Just as he landed, he sped between the pilings of the pier and then through the other side, where he completed a couple more moves as the crowd of 50,000 roared its approval.

Garcia, a 14-year Assn. of Professional Surfers veteran ranked No. 1 on the World Championship Tour, left the field in his wake thereafter, winning by more than five points over second-place Dan Malloy of Ventura. Cardiff’s Rob Machado, ranked No. 15 on the WCT, was third and Hawaii’s Kalani Robb (No. 28) rounded out the all-American final.

Holding the hand of his 6-year-old son, Stone, Garcia spoke softly about how he was fortunate to have beaten such a talented field. He reminded everyone that he had issued a written apology to Campbell for insinuating the Australian was afraid to surf big waves at Banzai Pipeline. And Garcia gave credit to his wife, Raina, for putting him on a diet that has helped revive his career.

“We meet again, under a little bit happier terms,” Garcia said, greeting a throng of media. “It’s pretty sweet to win after the disappointment of last week, especially in front of a crowd like this, all the sponsors and the whole surf industry.

“I’ve always loved surfing here, even before I was on the WCT and I came here and watched guys like [three-time world champion] Tom Curren and [defending world champion Mark Occhilupo]. There’s so much tradition here. To win in Huntington is just insane.”

Garcia jumped out to an early lead, grabbing three quick waves--including the crowd-pleasing-pier-shooter which was scored a 7.0--to give him an early total of 19.15 that would have held up to win the contest. He added a radical cutback-laden 7.15 late in the heat to finish with 20.65, the fourth-highest scoring heat of the week-long event.

“It’s always nice to get a lead, but you have to guard against getting lazy when you’re way ahead,” Garcia said.

Since his wife took him off sodas, candy and fast food, Garcia, 30, appears anything but lazy. He has lost almost 20 pounds but none of the power that sets his surfing apart from his peers and has him in position to win his first world championship.

Sunday’s victory won’t help him in that quest--the U.S. Open is a World Qualifying Series event which doesn’t count in the WCT rankings--but it was worth $10,000.

For Malloy, 22, trying to qualify for the WCT by earning enough WQS points, it was the 2,150 points that had him “super stoked,” although he didn’t mind the $5,000 check for second place.