Oceanside Surfer Isn’t Hometown Hero This Season, But He’s Coping With Pressures of Pros by . . . : LEARNING TO RIDE WITH THE WAVES

Last year, Oceanside’s Mike Lambresi was the star of the show.

The defending champion of the Stubbies Pro International Surfing Tournament was besieged with interview requests and friends were knocking at his door. They all wanted to know if the hometown boy could repeat his 1983 championship.

The answer was a resounding no.

Lambresi was eliminated in the first round of the main event at Oceanside’s Harbor Beach.

“There was so much pressure last year, I really couldn’t take it,” Lambresi said. “I had to do 500,000 interviews and I was performing in front of all my friends.”

As the main event of the 1985 Stubbies tournament gets underway here today, the 21-year-old Lambresi is hoping that nerves won’t get in the way of a possible championship run. He’s still getting attention this year, but he’s hoping he will handle it better.

Lambresi, is the kind of guy who looks as if he lives in a bathing suit and looks comfortable carrying around a surfboard. The only break from the surfer image is the color of his short-cropped hair, which is sandy brown rather than bleach blond. He’s ranked 18th in the world, but this weekend, he’ll be facing a talented group of surfers including 1984 world champion Tom Carroll, 1984 Stubbies pro champion Shaun Tomson, and four-time world champion Mark Richards.

“I’m surfing well enough right now to win this thing,” Lambresi said. “I know these waves better than anyone here and I’m hoping to use that to my advantage. I had to deal with the pressure last year and I learned a lot from it. This year, I don’t feel like there’s any pressure on me and I just want to go out there and have a good time. It’s going to help me that all of friends will be rooting for me.”

However, the person closest to him, his fiance Kim Garrett, will not be present at this weekend’s tournament.

Lambresi and Garrett, who lives in Beavertown, Ore., were engaged two months ago. Being away from her is what Lambresi says is toughest about the pro circuit. It’s so tough, he says, that it might be the one thing that cuts his pro surfing career short.

“Sometimes I’m gone for two months at a time and it’s very difficult,” Lambresi said. “My ultimate goal is to get ranked high enough that I can make enough money to get married and take her with me. If I can’t, I’ll probably settle down and only compete on the American tour.”

Lambresi, ranked as high as No. 6 in the world this June, has slumped a bit recently, and being away from Kim, he says, has had a lot to do with that. Lambresi has made about $6,000 on the tour so far this year, but he’ll have to advance in the rankings in order to complete his dream.

“You can’t really expect to make enough money on the tour if you’re not in the top 16,” he said. “We make most of our money through sponsors and I’d need to get into the top five or 10 to make enough.”

Without Garrett in attendance, Lambresi will have to draw support from another one of his biggest fans, his mother Laura.

“She’s the one who got me into surfing,” Lambresi said. “We always lived within a couple miles of the beach and she’d encourage me to go out and surf. Now, whenever I get down and out, my mother always comes through and keeps me going. With her help, I’ve learned how to come out of my slumps.”

Lambresi began boogie boarding when he was 10 and discovered he had a knack for catching waves. He started surfing when he was 13 and turned pro when he graduated from Oceanside High School.

When he was 20, he recorded his two biggest thrills, defeating Tomson in a second-round man-on-man match in the Ocean Pacific Pro Tournament at Huntington Beach, and beating Richards at the pro stop in Australia. In his career, Lambresi has defeated Tomson in four times in six head-to-head competitions.

“I always feel that I have a chance to beat guys like that if I can get four waves equal to theirs during the competition,” Lambresi said. “Once, I get that, I know I have to surf my best because they always give a great effort. The best surfers are the ones who don’t worry about luck. The best surfers go out and get the best waves. The losers say that they had bad luck, but the winners know that isn’t the case.”

Competition aside, Lambresi says his biggest enjoyment in surfing is just to get out and be a part of the waves.

“I love just going out with a few of my closest friends and having a good day surfing,” he said. “I think a lot of people like surfing because the athlete has to have a relationship with nature. In other sports, you just have the athletes competing against each other. In surfing, you’re competing against nature.”

But, to Lambresi, falling in love also is quite natural. Natural enough that it may eventually keep him from accomplishing some of his goals in surfing.

“I certainly, one day, would like to become the world champion,” Lambresi said. “But falling in love and getting engaged is another thing. I’d rather settle down.”

But, of course, not until Lambresi gets at least one more chance to return to the spotlight in Oceanside this weekend.

PRO SURFING TOURNAMENT

Time: Today through Saturday (Beginning at 6:30 a.m. and continuing through dusk). Sunday (7-1:30).

Place: Oceanside Harbor (North Jetty).

Finals: Noon Sunday.

Admission: Free.