Surfer Machado Gets His Hall Pass

Rob Machado might not win the Honda U.S. Open of Surfing, but on Friday he achieved something few others in the star-studded field will achieve: immortality.

Immediately after an electrifying triumph in the round of 48 of the six-star contest at Huntington Beach Pier, the slender goofy-footer from Cardiff-by-the-Sea was ushered across the street and inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame.

Machado drew laughter when he expressed concern over stepping into the wet cement with sand on his feet. He then gazed at the names etched in the concrete on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street and wondered aloud if the honor might have come too soon.

“I almost feel like I’m a little young for this,” he said. “But I’m glad to be here.”

Machado, 32, was inducted alongside surfing pioneer Greg Noll, six-time world champion Layne Beachley and surf apparel giant Bob Hurley. Past inductees include Peter Townend, Gerry Lopez, Laird Hamilton, Lisa Andersen, Shaun Tomson, Mark Richards, Kelly Slater and Bob McNight.

Machado never won a world championship -- he finished second to Slater in 1995, before a riff with the tour sent him in a largely non-competitive career direction -- but he’s a past U.S. champion, a two-time U.S. Open champion and a Pipeline Masters champion.

Further, he has come to embody the new-age surfer lifestyle as a family man -- he has a wife and two young daughters -- who rides waves better than most top touring pros.

Townend, who won the Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ inaugural world title in 1976, called Machado “the best surfer in the world not in the top 44,” referring to the elite World Championship Tour.

Jesse Billauer, a quadriplegic who, after suffering a spinal cord injury, made it back onto his board with the help of Machado and the “Life Rolls On” foundation he supports, said of his friend: “I’m now able to inspire others and it’s all because of Rob Machado inspiring me to be a better person, who also wants to start a family.”

Machado and Billauer will surf together Sunday during a U.S. Open expression session.

The former held his own expression session Thursday in a heat with three others, taking the lead early while surfing from a spot at the south end of the contest zone known as Machado’s Peak.

Machado’s top wave, a three-foot left-hander on which he performed a series of powerful top turns and cutbacks, and negotiated a floater above the lip that covered about 20 feet, received a score of 8.0 out of a possible 10, which ultimately helped him to a best-two-waves score of 15.5.

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The women’s portion of the U.S. Open will be run to completion today. Still in contention, through the round of 24, are defending champion Julia Christian and Rebecca Woods.

Carlsbad’s Christian defeated Australia’s Woods in last year’s final on a flat day during which her rival failed to catch a single wave. Today figures to be much like Friday, with shoulder-high peaks and clean conditions through early afternoon. “So maybe it’ll be exciting,” Christian said.

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Former world champion Sunny Garcia was among the most notable surfers eliminated from the men’s competition.