SURFING OP PRO CHAMPIONSHIPS : O’Connell Puts His Worries to Rest With Upset Victory

Pat O’Connell tossed and turned in bed at his Laguna Niguel home Wednesday night. He was awake by 3:30 a.m., and was watching cartoons by 6.

“I turned on the Smurfs,” he said.

The 19-year-old surfer lost sleep over his second-round heat at the Op Pro surfing championships against former world champion Damien Hardman of Narrabeen, Australia.

“I just laid there and stared at the wall, thinking about who I was surfing against,” O’Connell said.

But O’Connell laid to rest any worries later Thursday morning, upsetting second-seeded Hardman, 77.7 to 75.8, at the Huntington Beach Pier.

O’Connell was one of five unseeded surfers who upset seeded surfers Thursday. Four of the upsets were against Australian surfers.

Victor Ribas of Brazil defeated fourth-seeded Gary Elkerton of Mooloolaba, Australia, 76.6 to 62, and Shane Herring of Deewhy, Australia, surprised fifth-seeded Dave Macaulay of Cowaramup, Australia, 70.1 to 65.8.

Unseeded Kelly Slater of Cocoa Beach, Fla., who lives and trains in Huntington Beach during the summer, upset second-seeded Rob Bain of Manly, Australia, 81.5 to 75.8, and Tony Ray of Torquay, Australia, beat 10th-seeded Sunny Garcia of Waianae, Hawaii, 72.5 to 63.

Sixth-seeded Richie Collins of Newport Beach, the 1989 Op champion, defeated unseeded Shaun Munro of Lennox Head, Australia, 69.5 to 64.3. San Clemente’s Mike Parsons, seeded 31st, advanced by beating 11th-seeded Nicky Wood of Newcastle, Australia, 79.5 to 25.5.

O’Connell had some anxious moments during his heat. He was leading Hardman, 77.7 to 69, with three minutes remaining, but Hardman scored a 19.8 to cut the deficit to 1.9.

Then the strategy game began.

O’Connell, knowing he had to protect his lead, swam around the “priority buoy,” giving him first choice on the next wave. He rode a wave to the shore with less than a minute left.

He watched from the shore as Hardman, who needed a 19 out of 30 to win, caught the final wave of the heat.

“I heard the announcer say that Damien had caught one on the outside,” O’Connell said. “I watched him, and I knew he couldn’t score a 19 on it.”

O’Connell is another in a long line of surfers who has made a name for himself at the Op. Garcia, Florida’s Todd Holland, Australia’s Mark Occhilupo and Joey Buran made career breakthroughs at the Op.

O’Connell has hopes of surfing on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals world tour. But his sponsors want him to stay on the Professional Surfing Assn. of America tour, which keeps most of its contests in California.

“They want me to stay here because of the TV and the exposure,” O’Connell said. “But if I do well here at the Op, I might be able to con my sponsors into letting me go on the (ASP’s) Europe leg.”

O’Connell advanced to today’s third round against Tom Carroll of Newport Beach, Australia. Another day. Another former world-champion opponent for O’Connell.

“It’ll be tough to get to sleep,” O’Connell said.

The daring maneuvers by 19-year-old Slater continued to impress not only contest judges, but fellow surfers as well.

When asked about Slater’s level of surfing, defending world champion Tom Curren of Santa Barbara looked skyward.

“He’s way up there,” Curren said. “He’s on another level, especially in this (two- to three-foot) surf. He’s doing things that I would like to see done. His style’s good, too.”

Curren returned to the ASP world tour Thursday at the Op Pro, and it was no contest.

The competition didn’t even show up. Michael Barry of Bundall, Australia, failed to show for his second-round heat against Curren after misreading the event schedule.

So Curren, a native of Santa Barbara now living in Biarritz, France, surfed the 25-minute heat alone, pleasing the crowd with his fluid style that has won three Op titles and three world titles.

“I’m still not warmed up completely,” Curren said. “It’s a good thing he didn’t show up.

Curren, 27, skipped the tour’s first three stops in Australia so he could be with his wife, Marie, who recently gave birth to their second child, Nathan. And, as he has done for the past several years, Curren skipped the Gunston 500 contest in Durban, South Africa, in protest of the country’s policy of apartheid.

But with apartheid crumbling, Curren said he might compete in the Gunston 500 next year.

“I’d like to go because the waves are good over there,” he said.

Other Orange County surfers weren’t as fortunate as O’Connell. Laguna Beach’s Jeff Booth lost to 1989 world champion Martin Potter of Sydney, Australia, 76.8 to 67.5. And Terence McNulty of San Clemente lost to top-seeded Barton Lynch of Manly, Australia, 85.3 to 77.5.

The Derek Ho Show: Derek Ho of Sunset Beach, Hawaii, had the best score of the day, a 92 out of a possible 120, in his victory over Simon Law of Newcastle, Australia.

Ho, the nephew of Hawaiian entertainer Don Ho, scored a 26 out of a possible 30 on his second wave of the heat.

Women advance: Three locals finished third in their second-round heats--Tricia Gill of Newport Beach, and Huntington Beach’s Nea Post and Janice Aragon--but each qualified for today’s main event by finishing in the top three in the losers’ bracket heat.

Unseeded Frieda Zamba of Flagler Beach, Fla., the only surfer to win four Op titles, earned a wild-card berth into the main event, where she will surf against defending world champion Pam Burridge of Newport Beach, Australia, in the first round.

Notes

Competition resumes at 7 a.m. today with the women’s main event first round, followed by the Op sports model contest at 10:20. The men’s third round starts at 11:20.