Aussies Rise Above Flat Waves at Life’s A Beach

Australian residents Martin Potter, Pam Burridge and Nat Young have just about as much experience on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ world tour as anyone in their divisions.

So when the waves south of the Oceanside Pier, which had been fairly consistent throughout the week, turned mushy and flat during Sunday’s final rounds of the $112,500 Life’s A Beach contest, Potter, Burridge and Young cashed in on some of that experience to win.

Potter, the defending world champion, won the men’s division in a rout over Hawaii’s Sunny Garcia, 74.8-53.5. Potter scored well on four of his first five waves--contestants are judged on their four best waves out of a maximum of 15 in the finals--and Garcia managed just two good rides throughout the 30-minute final.

Asked what he would do differently if he could have the final to do over, Garcia answered simply, “Catch some waves.”

For Potter, who is a citizen of Great Britain, it was his first victory in six events this season and 13th in 10 years on the world tour. He earned $10,000 and 1,400 tour points to move from 12th to seventh with 5,008. Australia’s Robbie Bain, who finished tied for fifth, remained the tour leader with 6,592 points.

“Winning the world title last year, you know, I came out surfing thinking like I had to defend the title (in every event),” Potter said. “When you try to defend something, it’s almost twice as hard winning. I ended up putting a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself. I made a lot of mistakes early in the year.

“This was sort of a barrier for me to try to stop putting the pressure on myself and just go out and start surfing, which is what I did last year.”

Burridge, who holds a number of ASP records including most appearances (87) and most top eight finishes (nine), convincingly defeated Florida’s Lisa Anderson, 76.3-60.3, in the women’s division, despite catching only five waves to Anderson’s nine.

It was also Burridge’s first victory of the season after finishing second three times.

“I had a string of second places which I walked away quite happy from. And I didn’t like that,” Burridge said. “I wanted to prove to myself that I could win an event again and be worthy of it. Lisa’s been, I guess, the form surfer lately, and she’s been stopping people in her tracks. So I’m happy.”

Burridge won $3,500 and increased her leading tour points to 6,814. She is trying to win her first world title after finishing second a record four times and third three times in nine years on the tour.

While Potter and Burridge are 25 and 24, respectively, Young is 43, and had to go against 14-year-old Joel Tudor of San Diego--the youngest finalist ever in an ASP contest--as well as Dale Dobson of Oceanside and Stuart Entwistle of Australia in the four-man final of the longboarding division, the first such ASP competition ever held on the United States mainland.

Young, the defending world champion, won $4,000. Dobson was second, Tudor third and Entwistle fourth.

While the others paddled about trying to find a hot spot, Young stayed close to the pier throughout and caught the most waves of the day, 11.

“It’s something that Pottz (Potter) and I had in common--consistency,” Young said. “As far as wave selection, my feeling is, the only time a wave is over is when it’s a ripple on the sand . . . when it totally dissipates. There wasn’t a lot of waves, but you do your best with what you’ve got.”