SURFING OP PRO CHAMPIONSHIPS : Hawaii’s Thomas Gets Victory, With a Twist

Marty Thomas looked more like a gymnast than a surfer on one wave Thursday morning at the Op Pro championships.

Thomas injured his lower back when he did the splits as he attempted a floater maneuver near the Huntington Beach Pier.

“It was the full splits, too,” said Thomas, a Seal Beach native who has homes in Long Beach and Hawaii. “I felt like Nadia Comaneci out there, like I was on the balance beam. I was just suspended on my board for a while.”

Still, Thomas held on to win his heat, then won his doubles heat with Sunny Garcia to lead Hawaii to a 159.1-132.5 victory over Europe-Africa.

Thomas was injured during his 18.5-15.5 victory over Justin Strong of South Africa in the second heat of the day.

After the heat, Thomas, 23, phoned Dr. Tim Brown of Newport Beach, a chiropractor who has been treating him for the last eight years.

“I could feel my back tightening up when I sat on my board,” Thomas said. “Tim suggested I not surf my second (doubles) heat, but it didn’t feel that bad.”

Thomas and Garcia, both finalists at past Op Pros, combined to outscore Strong and Graham Wilson, 45.1-33.5.

Hawaii’s Kaipo Jaquias and Rochelle Gordines followed with a 30.5-25 victory over Noel Rahme and Kay Holt in the mixed doubles.

The doubles victories were key for Hawaii, as Jaquias and Hans Hedemann earlier had lost their individual heats to Rahme and Dave Malherbe, respectively.

But after the contest, Thomas wasn’t much in a celebrating mood.

“My back’s pretty sore right now,” said Thomas, who was on his way to the chiropractor after the contest. “But I’ll ice it and see how it goes. I’m 90% sure I’ll be out there tomorrow.”

Hawaii will need Thomas in the lineup today if it hopes to make Sunday’s finals. Hawaii needs to defeat Australia this morning, then have a strong showing in the tag-team competition to advance out of its pool.

“We’re going to beat the Australians like they were yesterday’s news,” said Garcia, whose 26.3 (out of 30) in the doubles competition was the highest score of the event so far.

Garcia, 22, who ranked sixth on the world tour last year, also was confident that Thomas can come back from the injury.

“Modern technology can fix anything,” Garcia said. “I’ve had doctors tell me I would need knee surgery and be out for a year. Then I would be back surfing two weeks later.

“I just hope Marty doesn’t tweak his back again.”

Injury report: Japan’s Takao Kuga strained his back during a 21.5-17 loss to Brazil’s Richard Tatui. Kuga, 28, wanted to rest his back and was replaced by Naohisa Ogawa in the doubles competition. Kuga is expected to compete in today’s tag-team event.

Brazil defeated Japan, 163-154, in the closest heat of the contest so far. Japan was swept by the United States yesterday.

Ogawa was the first Japanese surfer to win a heat at the Op, defeating Brazil’s Tadeu Pereira, 19.5-13.5.

Ogawa’s victory, paired with Takayuki Fukuchi and Yasuko Kamitaki’s victory in the mixed doubles, kept Brazil from tying the United States for first place in their pool. The U.S. team has 14 points, Brazil 10 and Japan four.

Teams get two points for each heat victory. The teams with the most points in each pool advance to Sunday’s finals.

Missing in action, continued: Some of the Europe-Africa team members are upset with former world-champion Martin Potter, who failed to show up for the contest.

“It was really poor of him to do that,” said team member Kay Holt. “One phone call from him would have saved us a lot of problems.”

Potter didn’t notify Op officials of his absence, and Europe-Africa surfers were left without a captain until Wednesday morning. They were swept by Australia on Wednesday afternoon before losing to Hawaii Thursday.

Said Europe-Africa’s Dave Malherbe: “It didn’t affect us that much. But it was a bummer because we would have had one really strong guy, maybe the strongest in the contest.

“Martin’s a good guy, and I’m sure he had a good reason not to be here.”

Graham Wilson, Potter’s replacement, said Potter told him last week he was coming to the Op.

Malherbe said he wasn’t sure where Potter was.

“Two people told me he was in California,” Malherbe said. “Somebody else told me he was in Australia.”

Team, U.S.A.? Kelly Slater wasn’t so sure how the U.S. team, which meets Brazil in the second round Saturday, is coming together.

“There’s not much bonding going on,” he said. “There’s not much of a team feel yet. By the end, there probably will be.”

Autograph hell: Surfers handed out small flags of their respective countries to fans.

Two boys asked Garcia to sign their flags. Garcia obliged, signing them on top of his board with a magic marker.

When he gave the flags back to the boys, he discovered that the marker had soaked through to his board.

“It’s OK,” he said. “I think it will come off.”

International flavor: Garcia was born and raised in Hawaii, but he could have surfed for a number of countries. Check out his ethnic heritage: Hawaiian, Filipino, Chinese, Irish, Puerto Rican and Spanish.

International pastimes: Team Japan’s favorite things to do in Huntington Beach when not surfing, in no particular order: skateboard, fish and eat junk food.

Op Notes

The tag-team competition, the marquee event of team surfing, begins at 1:30 p.m. today. Surfing for the United States in the tag team will be Newport Beach’s Richie Collins, Kelly Slater and Todd Holland of Cocoa Beach, Fla., San Clemente’s Mike Parsons and Laguna Beach’s Alisa Schwarzstein, a former world amateur champion and three-time U.S. amateur champion. . . . The first round of the Miss Op sports model contest starts at 11:30 a.m. today, with the finals scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

Op Results

Hawaii 159.1, Europe-Africa 132.5

HAWAII--Sunny Garcia 20, Marty Thomas 18.5, Kaipo Jaquias 13, Hans Hedemann 13.5, Rochelle Gordines 18.5. Garcia-Thomas 45.1, Jaquias-Gordines 30.5.

EUROPE-AFRICA--Graham Wilson 17.5, Justin Strong 15.5, Noel Rahme 16.5, David Malherbe 15.5, Kay Holt 9.5. Wilson-Strong 33.5, Rahme-Holt 25.

Brazil 163, Japan 154

BRAZIL--Ricardo Tatui 21.5, Amaury Pereira 20, Renan Rocha 23, Tadeu Pereira 13.5, Andrea Lopes 17.5. Tatui-Amaury Pereira 39.5, Rocha-Lopes 28.

JAPAN--Takao Kuga 17, Shuji Kasuya 16.5, Takayuki Fukuchi 19.5, Naohisa Ogawa 19.5, Yasuko Kamitaki 9.5. Kuga-Kasuya 38.5, Fukuchi-Kamitaki 33.5.

Team standings

(Teams receive two points for each heat victory. The team with the most points in each pool after two rounds and two tag-team events will advance to the finals)

Pool 1--1. United States, 14; 2. Brazil, 10; 3. Japan, 4. Pool 2--1. Australia, 14; 2. Hawaii, 10; Europe-Africa 4.