Horan Hopes to Recapture Glory at Op Pro

It isn’t so much the trophy that Cheyne Horan remembers. Not even the prize money. Or even the six-foot waves that swept through the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier that summer day in 1982.

Instead, Horan remembers how he won the first Op Pro surfing championship.

“I set a precedent with that backside 360-degree (maneuver),” Horan said. “Since then, every Op final has had one big move by somebody. It was one of those things people were looking for. It was cutting-edge.”

Horan used that big move to build an early lead over South Africa’s Shaun Tomson, and hung on for the victory, the first of three Australians to win the Op.

“I was surfing at the pier the other day and I started thinking back to that 1982 final,” Horan said. “I thought about that crowd, how loud it is and how it gets behind you. It made me produce some of my best surfing ever. Some of the best things I’ve ever done were in the the ’82 final.”

The Op is one of Horan’s 12 victories in 16 years on the world tour. He finished second in the world title standings four times in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, including three times behind fellow Australian Mark Richards. Horan finished fifth or better eight times.

“Cheyne was creative, spontaneous and was always trying new things,” said Australian Ian Cairns, a top pro in the 1970s who helped develop the first Op Pro.

“The problem with Cheyne was that he came up against Richards, someone who was peaking with every wave he rode. They were two incredibly talented surfers who could have won multiple world titles.

“Cheyne never lost a world title. Mark won them.”

Richards has long since left the world tour and now runs a surf shop in Australia. But Horan? He was competing in a world qualifying event last weekend in Oceanside.

In a sport in which many competitors are washed up at 25, Horan is a living relic.

At 32, he has become to surfing what Robert Parish is to pro basketball, George Foreman to boxing, Jimmy Connors to tennis. He’s the oldest surfer in the top 44, earning a ranking of 39 last year.

“It’s cool to see people like Cheyne stay in the sport,” Cairns said. “He’s living history, and he’s valuable to the sport. One of the things missing is experience--knowing what’s good or bad, what’s right or wrong. There’s a real inordinate value on youth and good looks in our sport. What we need is more maturity.”

Horan provides plenty of that.

Some of the younger surfers refer to him as their “Zen master,” coming to him with their problems. What boards should they use for this contest? How do they break out of a slump? How do they handle the stress of travel and pressure from sponsors?

Horan doesn’t always have the answers, but he’s always willing to help.

“My role on the tour is to show you that you can still do it when you get older,” he said. “You have to take care of yourself.

“One of the keys to hanging in there is yoga. I stay away from fast foods. I eat a lot of vegetables, fruits, rice. And most of all, I don’t get stressed out. I’ve stayed relaxed.”

Horan gets irritated when asked why he didn’t retire from the sport years ago, when he was still among the top-ranked surfers.

“People say I should have quit years ago, when I was on top,” he said. “Doing that would have been egotistical. You do something because you love it, and I still love doing this.”

How much longer will he go? As long as there are still waves breaking.

“If the tour changes and we don’t have to surf as many events as we do now,” he said, “I think I could compete for another 10 years.”

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Horan has spent the last two weeks training and competing in Southern California, focusing mainly on Huntington Beach. He hasn’t surfed here since 1991, and he was curious if the new pier would have any effect on Huntington’s surf break.

“This year’s Op will shock a lot of the traveling pros,” he said. “The banks have changed, I think, because of the new pier.”

Horan said the banks are shallower than in the past, making for more breaking waves.

“There’s a lot of sand out there now,” he said. “There’s no hole (flat spot) out there any more.”

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Predictions: Here are my picks for the Op Pro:

Men’s competition--I’ll take Newport Beach’s Richie Collins. He has reached the Op final every other year since 1989, and he’s due for a victory in his home surf. Pressure is on, Collins.

Laguna Beach’s Jeff Booth and Australia’s Shane Powell could make the finals. And never rule out two-time champion Barton Lynch of Australia.

Defending world champion Kelly Slater, former world-champion Martin Potter and Hawaii’s Sunny Garcia will be looking for their first Op victories.

The sleepers--Australia’s Mark Bannister and Jake Spooner, Hawaii’s Shane Dorian and Carlsbad’s Taylor Knox have looked good in qualifying events. And if the surf is small, Cardiff’s Rob Machado will become a huge factor.

Women--Frieda Zamba of Flagler Beach, Fla. Not much of a stretch here. Zamba has won a record five Op titles by beating the world’s best. This year’s contest is a specialty event, and most of the top pros are staying home. Zamba should cruise.

Op Junior--Defending champion Tim Buechler of Titusville, Fla., is my pick, but watch for some of the young locals such as San Clemente’s Josh Vesque. A county surfer has never won the amateur title in its five-year history.

Longboarders--Israel Paskowitz won last weekend at Oceanside, but I’ll take defending world champion Joey Hawkins of Huntington Beach at the Op. He’ll dominate on his local break. The chance to see longtime greats such as David Nuuhiwa surf in this division is a treat.

Tag-team competition--Tag-team surfing’s roots are in Australia, and the Aussies didn’t take too kindly to losing to Team USA last year. There’s a genuine rivalry between the Australians and the Americans, and it’s evident here. I’m not taking either team this year. I like Hawaii. Sunny Garcia, Marty Thomas and new addition Derek Ho give the Hawaiians big-wave potential along with fellow team members Shane Dorian and Kaipo Jaquias. They will be the surprise of the Op.

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The format: Surfers have praised Op’s decision to abandon its team-only format and return individual championships. But the contest will still follow a format different from past Op Pros--surfers will compete in four-man heats instead of two-man heats.

The world-tour qualifying series uses the four-man format, where the top two finishers in each heat advance. Past Op Pros were world-tour events, which use the two-man format.

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Surf report: How are the waves for the Op? Surfline-Wavetrak, the official forecaster for the Op, reports that a series of South swells combining with a local Northwest wind swell should supply the pier with head-high waves through the start of next week. A new storm developing off the coast of Tahiti and a possible hurricane off Mexico could bring bigger waves by the end of next week.

Surfline reports are available by calling 1-900-976-7873.

Beach Notes

ESPN will air the Op Pro at 7 p.m. Aug. 9 and the Op Junior at 10:30 p.m. July 13. The San Clemente Ocean Festival is set for Saturday and Sunday at the San Clemente Pier. A longboard surfing contest has been scheduled for 8 a.m. Saturday and a lifeguard competition for 9 a.m. Sunday.

Entries for the Op Pro:

Men--(Orange County entries only) Dino Andino (San Clemente), Matt Archbold (San Clemente), Mark Austin (Huntington Beach), Craig Bechtloff (Huntington Beach), Shane Beschen (San Clemente), Jeff Booth (Laguna Beach), Ronnie Brim (Huntington Beach), Noah Budroe (Huntington Beach), Richie Collins (Newport Beach), Vince De La Pena (Laguna Niguel), Jeff Deffenbaugh (Huntington Beach), Branden Faber (Laguna Beach), Donavon Frankenreiter (Mission Viejo).

David Giddings (Newport Beach), Jason Haughey (Laguna Niguel), Dan Kennedy (South Laguna), Bud Llamas (Huntington Beach), Bobby Lockhart (Huntington Beach), Terence McNulty (Capistrano Beach), Danny Melhado (San Clemente), Todd Miller (Costa Mesa), Cordell Miller (Laguna Niguel), John Parmenter (Huntington Beach), Mike Parsons (San Clemente), James Pribram (Laguna Beach), Shane Stoneman (San Juan Capistrano), Marty Thomas (Seal Beach), Kirk Tice (Huntington Beach).

Women--Eve Allerton, Janice Aragon, Rochelle Ballard (Hawaii), Connie Clark, Tricia Gill, Kim Hamrock, Christine Jenkins, Linda Laszlo, Kim Mearig (Santa Barbara), Ellen Petrus, Nea Post (Huntington Beach), Falina Spires, Susan Stewart, Frieda Zamba (Flagler Beach, Fla.).

Junior amateurs--Bryce Aberg (San Marcos), Bill Bartleman (Jupiter, Fla.), Tim Buechler (Titusville, Fla.), Carlos Cabrerro (Puerto Rico), Kyle Cohn (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.), Reid Cox (Myrtle Beach, S.C.), Shawn Decker (Summerland), Chad Delgado (Hawaii), David Dixon (Stuart, Fla.), Brian Doonan (San Diego), Kent Doonan (San Diego), Chris Drummy (San Juan Capistrano), Christian Enns (Santa Barbara), Otto Flores (Puerto Rico), Kyle Garson (Melbourne Beach, Fla.), London Gould (Seal Beach), Cody Graham (Hawaii), Jason Harcharic (Huntington Beach), Layne Harrison (Corpus Christi, Tex.).

Danny Hart (Paseo Robles), Homer Henard (Santa Cruz), Ryan Helm (Tequesta, Fla.), Brian Hewitson (Indialantic, Fla.), Brian Hughes (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Andy Irons (Honolulu), Tom Johnson (Encinitas), Matt Keenan (Oceanview, N.J.), Zach Keenan (Cardiff), Chris Keet (Santa Barbara), Daniel Kelekoma (Hawaii), Jay Larson (Huntington Beach), Cory Lopez (Indian Rocks Beach, Fla.), Kyle McCarthy (Florida), Ailbe McGarry (Cardiff), Jon Moyer (Huntington Beach), Geoff Moysa (San Clemente), Randy Nolan (Cocoa Beach, Fla.), Billy Oswald (Huntington Beach), Brian Pacheco (Hawaii), Kalani Robb (Haleiwa, Hawaii), John Schmidt (Florida), Brian Stanton (Encinitas), Chris Strother (Carlsbad), Shawn Sutton (Hawaii), Jeff Venn (Atlantic Beach, Fla.), Josh Vesque (San Clemente), Mike Vos (Carlsbad), Frank Walsh (Longport, N.J.).

Team competition: USA--Dino Andino, Jeff Booth, Richie Collins, Todd Holland, Kelly Slater. Australia--Shane Herring, Barton Lynch, Dave Macaulay, Richard Marsh, Tony Ray. Hawaii--Shane Dorian, Sunny Garcia, Derek Ho, Kaipo Jaquias, Marty Thomas. Brazil--Fabio Gouviea, Flavio Padaratz, Tadeu Pereira, Peterson Rosa, Ricardo Tatui. Europe-Africa--Vetea David, Warren Dean, Spencer Hargraves, Martin Potter, Graham Wilson. Japan--Katsuya Matsumoto, Yuji Suzuki, Daizo Yamada, Shiro Yamamoto, Tomofumi Yoshioka.

Longboard division--Josh Baxter (San Clemente), Dale Dobson (Cardiff), Jesse Fernandez (Kitty Hawk, N.C.), Joey Hawkins (Huntington Beach), Rick Hazard (San Clemente), Stu Kenson (Cardiff), Jeff Kramer (San Clemente), Colin McPhillips (Capistrano Beach), Jed Morouse (San Clemente), David Nuuhiwa (Huntington Beach), Chris Olivas (Solana Beach), Israel Paskowitz (San Clemente), Jonathon Paskowitz (Laguna Beach), Bill Stewart (San Clemente), Joel Tudor (San Diego).