Potter’s ‘Do a Quest for Luck : Surfing: Defending champion going incognito. He has had trouble living up to his reputation.

Gone are the long, blondish-brown locks and the scruffy beard that surfing fans saw so often on the victory stand last season but have seen so little since.

The way defending world champion Martin Potter figured it, a change in appearance would change his fortunes. After finishing no higher than third in his first four competitions this season, the surfer from Newquay, England, made a trip to the barber shop.

Surfing with a new look and a new attitude, Potter won for the first time this season two weeks ago in the Life’s a Beach contest at Oceanside. He’s hoping for similar results in the Op Pro Surfing Championships, which begin today at the Huntington Beach Pier.

“I’m traveling incognito,” Potter said of his clean shave and tightly cut ‘do. “I was becoming too recognizable in Australia. Besides, the hair kept getting in my way. It was slowing me down.”

So was a shoulder injury.

Potter dislocated his shoulder six weeks before competing in Oceanside and struggled to third-, fifth- and two 17th-place finishes. But he was back in familiar territory in Oceanside, defeating Sunny Garcia in the final and moving up to seventh in the overall point standings with 5,008.

His bad start has left him nearly 1,600 points behind leader Rob Bain of Manly, Australia. At this time last season, Potter, 26, had won five of the first six events and was running away with the title.

“I’ve put too much importance on being the world champion,” said Potter, who led the tour in victories last year with six. “It seems like now I’m going out to defend titles. I’m letting the world-title stigma get to me.

“I finally got what I wanted: the title. Now I’m walking around, stressing about it.”

At least until his next trip to the barber . . .

Like Potter, defending women’s world champion Wendy Botha also has been battling injuries.

She missed the first stop on the tour at Santa Cruz while undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair ligament and cartilage damage in her right knee. Botha, of Sydney, Australia, injured her knee while surfing three days before the March competition.

“I was pulling out of a tube ride, and my knee bent (sideways),” Botha said. “It sounded like I broke my leg. It snapped real loud. I guess I was lucky.”

Doctors gave Botha two options after the injury. She could undergo reconstructive surgery right away or have arthroscopic surgery and postpone the major surgery until the season ends in mid-December.

Botha chose the latter. The reconstructive surgery requires several weeks of rehabilitation, and Botha figured she could have the operation and rest during the off-season.

Now that she’s back in the water, the injury hasn’t slowed her much.

Surfing with a knee brace, she won the Coke event and was third in Oceanside.

She’s moved up to fifth in the point standings and hopes a strong showing in the Op Pro competition will keep her in the chase for another world title.

“I’ve surfed with a lot of pain in my first three events,” said Botha, who won the Op Pro event in 1987 and was fifth last year. “I fell behind because I missed the first contest. Any event in the beginning is important. Lisa (Andersen) and Pam (Burridge) have done well early, but I’ve won one coming off a pretty bad injury.”

With defending champion Kelly Slater now competing on the pro circuit, the Op junior amateur competition could be wide-open.

Favorites this year include Rob Machado of Cardiff, who finished second to Slater last year, and Jeff Deffenbaugh, the defending U.S. amateur champion.

Four qualifying rounds in the Op junior will begin today at 6:30 a.m. Boys and girls will compete together in 20-minute heats. The semifinals and finals are next Saturday. The winner will receive a trophy and a $1,000 scholarship.

A hurricane off the southwest coast of Mexico created 10-foot waves at Huntington last week, and surfing forecasters hope a similar storm will help the Op Pro competition this week.

Surfers have complained about the one- to four-foot waves the last two years. But forecasters say two southwest swells this week should keep waves between three to five feet with occasional seven-footers.

Surfing Notes

ESPN will tape the Op Pro competition and show it on Aug. 13 at 6:30 p.m. in an hourlong telecast. . . . The women’s trial heats will start today at 2 p.m., the men’s trial heats Monday at 7 a.m. . . . The men’s finals are set for next Saturday at 12:30 p.m., following the women’s finals at 11 a.m. . . . The overall purse for the competition is $90,000.