Garcia stays calm in the storm

Though the electronic monitoring device was firmly wrapped around the right ankle of Sunny Garcia, he was feeling considerably lighter in the shoulders Tuesday when he arrived at the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach.

Garcia, a 37-year-old former world champion from Hawaii, is under house arrest in Newport Beach this summer. He pleaded guilty last October to tax evasion charges and spent three months in federal prison before his release in April.

“Obviously, it’s hard being free and then having so much restriction, but this is what I’ve got to go through and I really can’t complain,” he said. “I’m out of jail.”

Garcia failed to report $417,000 in prize money earned overseas between 1996 and 2001. He faced up to three years in prison, but a U.S. District judge in Los Angeles sentenced him to three months at Taft Correctional Facility near Bakersfield, seven months of house arrest and 80 hours of community service.

Though Garcia escaped a harsher punishment, he said the legal problems led to the end of his second marriage, caused many longtime sponsors to cease their relationship and grinded his professional career to a halt.

Still, as he prepared to paddle out for his first major competition in a year, Garcia said he considered the jail sentence a “blessing in disguise.”

“I had a lot of time to think about my life and what I want and what I want to change,” he said. “It was about having time to myself and finding who I am. I think it has made me a better person.”

Garcia, who has earned more than $1 million in prize money during his career, said he’s hoping it’s not too late to return to the form that enabled him to win the World Championship Tour in 2000. Though he’s considerably older than his counterparts, Garcia doesn’t believe age is as much a factor these days.

“I think it’s more about desire,” he said. “In my heart, I know I can be a top 10 guy. As far as going for a world title, it’s just a matter of being consistent.”

Garcia’s return to the World Qualifying Series didn’t last as long as he hoped. He moved into second place in his heat with a last-second ride in the round of 144, only to see the final qualifying spot taken away at the horn by Damien Fahrenfort of South Africa. Garcia said he had surfed only once in the previous two weeks and was competing for only the third time since his release from prison.

“I haven’t been surfing,” he said. “I’ve kind of been trying to get my community service out of the way and trying to figure out what I’m going to do next.”

Garcia said he spends five hours a day performing his community service at a Goodwill in Huntington Beach. He said he works anonymously at the center, but expects that could change because of the media attention he has been receiving this week.

“For me, it’s not a dent to my ego to go into work or anything,” he said. “When I was a kid, I came from a very poor family. I spent a lot of time in Goodwill, so it’s kind of going full circle.”

Garcia said he needed special permission from his parole officer to compete at the U.S. Open.

“As long as the surf event is within my hours, I’m all right,” he said. “I have a monitor on my leg, so it’s not like I can go anywhere without them not knowing where I’m at.”

He’ll be back at the U.S. Open on Thursday to compete in the first of two five-man heats to determine wild card berths for the Boost Mobile Pro, a WCT event scheduled for September at Trestles in San Clemente. Garcia hopes that will be the beginning of a new chapter.

“Now, it’s about getting back in the water,” he said. “and starting a whole new life.”

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dan.arritt@latimes.com