SURFING / OP PRO CHAMPIONSHIPS : When the Fog Finally Clears, U.S. Team Leaves Japan in a Haze

Kelly Slater and Richie Collins sat around in damp wetsuits all morning.

Todd Holland played video games. Mike Parsons talked with friends. Alisa Schwarzstein just sat and waited.

Competition got off to a laid-back start as surfers and fans had to wait a little longer than anticipated for the U.S. debut of team surfing Wednesday at the Op Pro surfing championships.

A heavy layer of fog covered the Huntington Beach Pier, delaying the start of the heat between the United States and Japan by four hours.

But when the fog finally lifted, the United States made it perfectly clear it was the team to beat.

Newport Beach’s Collins and Slater, a part-time Huntington Beach resident, threw some big moves in the four- to six-foot waves as the United States cruised to an easy victory.

“There aren’t any world tour points at this contest, so you can relax and take it easy,” Collins said. “If you take a contest like this seriously, you have a problem. It’s a fun contest.”

Especially when you’re winning.

The United States dominated Japan, sweeping all five individual and both doubles heats in compiling a 193-140.5 victory.

In Wednesday’s other heat, Australia swept seven heats from Europe-Africa, winning, 187-151. Europe-Africa competed without team captain Martin Potter, a former world champion who failed to show. Op officials replaced him Wednesday morning with Graham Wilson of Sydney, Australia.

The United States proved to be tough to beat in the team format, which Op adopted this year after 10 years of individual championships.

They certainly had a home-surf advantage.

The U.S. team featured two Op champions, Collins and Holland, the reigning U.S. champion, Parsons, a former amateur champion in Schwarzstein and the world’s hottest young surfer in Slater. All had surfed at the pier.

Japan’s Takao Kuga and Shuji Kasuya have surfed in eight Op Pros, the only ones on their team with extensive experience at Huntington Beach.

“I think we got a great draw with going against Japan first,” said San Clemente’s Parsons, the U.S. captain. “With all due respect to Japan, they were the easiest team to beat. I think going against Brazil on Saturday will be a better test for us.”

Said Kasuya: “We knew they (U.S. surfers) were good, so we figured we would just go for it. We can learn from it.”

Collins was glad to give the first lesson, getting the United States off to solid start. He had two seven-foot waves, the biggest of the day, and rode one through the pier. He easily defeated Kuga, 22.5-14.5.

“I like to go into the pier,” Collins said. “I like to try a radical floater just before I hit the pier. It’s like a race course under there (with the pilings).”

The United States continued building its lead as Todd Holland, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., edged Kasuya, 22.5-19.5 in the second heat.

That set the stage for Slater, ranked fourth on the world tour. His performance included a floater, two moves off the lip of the wave, an aerial and a 360-degree turn and his patented tailslide in the whitewater. He defeated Japan’s Takayuki Fukuchi, 19.5-15.

“Kelly was out there doing some weird things that I’ve never seen before,” Collins said. “It was like he was glue-foot. He never falls.”

Slater said he used the contest as a personal laboratory to experiment with new moves.

“I’ve been surfing good,” he said. “It would have been nice to have the individual format (as in the past) for the world-tour points.

“But this was real relaxing. It wasn’t so stressful, where you had to get your four waves. You could just go out and cut loose.”

Parsons followed Slater with a 20.5-15.5 victory over Naohisa Ogawa. Schwarzstein closed out the individual competition with a 19-10.5 victory over Yasuko Kamitaki.

In the doubles competition, Collins and Holland, longtime rivals on the world tour, defeated Kuga and Kasuya, 47.5 to 28.

Slater and Schwarzstein used some interesting teamwork to edge Fukuchi and Kamitaki, 41.5-37.5.

Schwarzstein’s board buckled during the heat. She had caught only two of the required three waves, and needed one more quickly in case the board snapped.

“Kelly was great,” Schwarzstein said. “This wave came in, and he easily could have taken it and scored well. But he gave it to me, so I could get my last wave. We were working together out there.”

Missing in action: Potter’s mysterious absence left Op officials scratching their heads, and scrambling to find a last-second replacement.

Contest coordinator Joe Adams said Potter had confirmed he would be there through the Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ office.

But Potter, the 1989 world champion, missed Tuesday night’s mandatory press party and failed to show Wednesday morning. Adams then selected Graham Wilson, ranked 29th in the world last year, as a replacement.

“There might be a very good reason as to why Martin’s not here,” Adams said. “But it’s basically bad manners. It’s like confirming you’ll attend a wedding, and then not show up.”

Wilson was added to the team, despite his Australian residence. Adams said team entries were determined by passports, and Wilson travels under a British one.

Wilson is guaranteed $1,600 for competing, and the winning team shares $20,000 of the $85,000 purse.

“This has been a great time,” he said. “Although I have taken a good bit of ragging from the Australian team.”

Missing in action II: Slater said he was disappointed that former world champion Tom Curren wasn’t competing for the U.S. team. Curren and several other top world tour surfers either skipped the event or weren’t invited.

“There was talk of Curren and (Brad) Gerlach doing it, but it might have worked out for the better,” Slater said. “It would have been exciting to have Curren on the team.”

Lights, camera, surfing: Slater is scheduled to appear in six episodes of the syndicated TV series “Baywatch,” playing a teen surfing phenom named “Kelly Slade.”

Film crews are expected to be on hand Saturday to tape Slater surfing at the Op for the series. They originally planned to tape Wednesday, but had to move it back to the weekend because they needed to file insurance papers.

“I was unsure about it at first,” Slater said. “But I found out more about it, I figured I could help surfing by doing it. It’s not such a hokey Hollywood image like, ‘Dude, gnarly’ that they always do in the movies.

“They’re leaving a lot of the dialogue and scenes up to me. You have to set the scene to get the feel of surfing. No one has captured that yet except for the surf videos.”

Results

United States 193, Japan 140.5

UNITED STATES--Richie Collins 22.5, Todd Holland 22.5, Kelly Slater 19.5, Mike Parsons 20.5, Alisa Schwarzstein 19. Doubles--Collins-Holland 47.5, Slater-Schwarzstein 41.5.

JAPAN--Takao Kuga 14.5, Shuji Kasuya 19.5, Takayuki Fukuchi 15, Naohisa Ogawa 15.5, Yasuko Kamitaki 10.5. Doubles--Kuga-Kasuya 28, Fukuchi-Kamitaki 37.5.

Australia 187, Europe-Africa 151

AUSTRALIA--Gary Elkerton 22, Richard Marsh 23, Shane Powell 23.5, Glen Winton 17, Pam Burridge 21.5. Doubles--Elkerton-Marsh 43, Powell-Burridge 35.

EUROPE-AFRICA--Graham Wilson 19.5, Justin Strong 13, Noel Rahme 17.5, David Malherbe 15.5, Kay Holt 11. Doubles--Wilson-Strong 40.5, Rahme-Holt 34.5.