Slater Back in Spotlight at Trestles

Kelly Slater says he doesn’t want to be a spoiler, but there’s no getting around the fact that that’s exactly what the six-time world champion could be this week at the Billabong Pro at Lower Trestles.

It’s the nature of the World Championship Tour, where the competition becomes one-on-one-and-the-loser-

books-a-flight after the first round of three-man heats. Slater, a wild-card entry who was second in an almost waveless heat Tuesday and will surf in Round 2 today, is seeded 46th out of the 48 surfers competing because he’s semi-retired from pro surfing. And that means if he wins today and is the lowest-seeded surfer remaining, he’ll meet No. 1 Sunny Garcia in Round 3.

Garcia, who is trying to win his first world title in his 15th year on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals tour and leads Australia’s Luke Egan by 730 points, would very much like to avoid an early exit. Garcia and Egan won their heats Tuesday and advanced to the third round.

“Billabong brought in Kelly to spoil my chances,” Garcia said, ignoring the fact that Slater accepted the wild card in February.

But Garcia has reason to worry. Slater is not your typical wild card. He has surfed two WCT events this year, winning the Gotcha Pro in Tahiti and finishing third at the Quiksilver Pro in Fiji. And Garcia has painful memories of similar scenarios.

Slater was No. 3 in the world and trailing top-ranked Garcia by almost 600 points going into the final event of 1995 at Pipeline. Garcia lost in the third round to 1999 world champ Mark Occhilupo, who was in the event on a wild card.

Slater won the event and the world title.

Asked if he felt comfortable with his current lead, Garcia said, “I’ve been in this position before and lost to Kelly time and time again, so I’m not secure of anything. After what I did in ‘95, I know anything can happen.”

Slater, who won his first contest as a pro at Trestles when he was 18, insists he doesn’t want to “come in and mess up the world championship race,” but he’s obviously surfing here to win. He even had his boards air-brushed to replicate the one he rode to victory here in 1990.

When he’s not making a WCT cameo appearance, Slater is concentrating on his golf game--he played Cypress Point last week--but he’s not ruling out a comeback.

“I think there’s a chance I could come back on the tour,” he said. “Not this year or next year, but maybe after that. I’m not going to discount it. The whole grind doesn’t appeal to me right now, but it’s a possibility.”

FLAT WITH BUMPS

Laguna Beach’s Pat O’Connell--a 10-year ASP veteran who has been surfing at Lowers most of his life--says one of the best things about the spot is that the combination of rocky reef and point break means it produces decent waves on almost any swell.

“Lowers will pick up anything, anything,” he said Sunday.

Tuesday, the beach lived up to O’Connell’s billing. A storm aimed at South America is producing a small swell, but “we’re just getting the very edge of it, so it’s very inconsistent,” Surfline forecaster Sean Collins said.

Surfers bobbed about 75 feet offshore for 10 minutes or more at a time while waiting for anything big enough to ride, but when a wave did appear, it had the Trestles signature: enough face for the world’s best to snap some radical turns and cutbacks.

O’Connell, struggling at No. 41 in the world, used the home-court advantage to win the first heat of the day. “See,” he said, flashing a grin after exiting the water. “When they do come in, they’re good.”

UPPERS, DOWNERS AND OUTERS

Australia’s Occhilupo is the antithesis of O’Connell when it comes to local knowledge of Lowers. He came to Southern California last week and surfed the break--or so he thought--a couple of times on his own.

“Then Luke [Egan] came down with me and I started walking up the beach and he said, ‘Where are you going?’ I’d been surfing at Uppers.’ ”

As it turns out, Occy will have to wait to get to know Lowers. The waves were so small over the weekend that he and Egan went to San Diego to ride an artificial wave machine. Occhilupo, No. 14 in the world, injured his ankle when he hit a retaining wall after a wipeout.

The ankle was swollen Tuesday, but he limped out into the water for his heat and took one wave before returning to the beach and withdrawing from the contest.

A BIT OF A LONGSHOT THEN?

Hawaii’s Shane Dorian, who’s ranked No. 6 and is 1,680 points behind Garcia, on his world title chances with three WCT events remaining: “A lot of [stuff] has got to hit the fan for me to win the world championship . . . so I’m hoping for that.”