Garcia Slashes His Way to a Sweet Surfing Title

A week ago, Sunny Garcia stood in almost the exact same spot in the media area of the scaffolding overlooking the swells on the south side of Huntington Beach pier and bitterly ripped Australian Michael Campbell, who had just beaten him in the final of the Bluetorch Pro.

Sunday, Garcia lashed out only at the waves, carving his trademark powerful turns and slashing cutbacks that sent buckets of water spraying in wide arcs as he dominated the final of the Panasonic ShockWave U.S. Open.

Garcia set the tone for the day when he caught an overhead left near the pier, sliced a huge turn up

the face of the wave and then hurtled off the top, floating down with the cascading section of whitewater. Just as he landed, he sped between the pilings of the pier and then through to the other side, where he completed a couple more moves as the estimated crowd of 50,000 crammed against the railings of the pier and jammed onto the beach oohed, aahed and finally roared approval.

Garcia, a 14-year Assn. of Professional Surfers veteran from Hawaii who is ranked No. 1 on the World Championship Tour, left the field in his wake thereafter, winning by more than five points over second-place Dan Malloy of Ventura. Cardiff’s Rob Machado, ranked No. 15 on the WCT, was third and Hawaii’s Kalani Robb (No. 28) rounded out the all-American final.

Holding the hand of his 6-year-old son, Stone, Garcia spoke softly about how he was fortunate to have beaten such a talented field. He reminded everyone that he had issued a written apology to Campbell for insinuating the Australian was afraid to surf big waves at Banzai Pipeline. And Garcia gave credit to his wife, Raina, for putting him on a diet that has helped revive his career.

“We meet again, under a little bit happier terms,” Garcia said, greeting a throng of media. “It’s pretty sweet to win after the disappointment of last week, especially in front of a crowd like this, all the sponsors and the whole surf industry.

“I’ve always loved surfing here, even before I was on the WCT and I came here and watched guys like [three-time world champion] Tom Curren and [defending world champion Mark Occhilupo]. There’s so much tradition here. To win in Huntington is just insane.”

Garcia jumped out to an early lead, grabbing three quick waves in the first 10 minutes of the 30-minute final--including the crowd-pleasing-pier-shooter which was scored a 7.0--to give him a total of 19.15 that would have held up to win the contest. He added a radical cutback-laden 7.15 late in the heat to finish with 20.65, the fourth-highest scoring heat of the weeklong event.

“It’s always nice to get a lead, but you have to guard against getting lazy when you’re way ahead,” Garcia said.

Since his wife took him off sodas, candy and fast food, Garcia, 30, appears anything but lazy. He has lost almost 20 pounds but none of the power that sets his surfing apart from his peers and has him in position to win his first world championship.

Sunday’s victory won’t help him in that quest--the U.S. Open is a World Qualifying Series event which doesn’t count in the WCT rankings--but it was worth $10,000, some of which he plans to spend at Disneyland, Sea World and other Southland attractions this week with his family, which includes daughters Kaila, 9, and Logan, 8.

For the 22-year-old Malloy, who’s trying to qualify for the WCT by earning enough WQS points, it was the 2,150 points that had him “super stoked,” although he didn’t mind the $5,000 check for second place.

Before the final began, announcers asked the crowd to applaud for their favorite as they introduced the surfers. Not surprisingly, Malloy was the winner, helped considerably by a lot of youthful cheers. Garcia and Machado are Huntington Beach favorites and veterans of the WCT, but Malloy, along with brother, Keith, who failed to advance out of Sunday’s semifinals, are revered by young surfers because of a plethora of magazine photo spreads and appearances in videos.

“I heard that and I thought, ‘What the heck?’ ” he said, smiling. “I think it’s because I had so many family members here. Sunny, Rob, Kalani, they’re so far above where I am.”

They’re clearly more experienced in contest situations, but few surfers on the globe have the raw talent of Dan Malloy.

“I was the youngest guy out there and I just didn’t want to look like it,” said Malloy, who caught a wave with 35 seconds remaining that propelled him from fourth place to second. “It has been really tough for me because everyone says I should be doing better in contests, but I’ve really been struggling. So this is a huge boost of confidence.”

Malloy went to find his family to celebrate. Garcia went to find a candy bar.

“I still sneak a candy bar sometimes when Raina’s not around, but I always get busted because I leave the wrappers in the car,” he said.

Just this once--since the victory was so sweet--she’ll probably look the other way.