By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Derek Ho will try his luck at golf this year while he
recuperates from knee surgery.
Triple Crown surfers take to
By Greg Ambrose
the golf course, raising money for
charitable organizations
Star-BulletinTHE world's top professional surfers have invaded Hawaii this winter wielding clubs. Not war clubs. Golf clubs.
Florida's Kelly Slater already has won his fifth Association of Surfing Professionals world title. Some of his frustrated fellow competitors are keen to see if they might at least be able to beat Slater on land in a pair of charity golf tournaments.
The tournaments are the first fruit of a plan by the ASP to link charity golf tournaments to the World Championship Tour.
"Golf has become an important aspect of the Coca-Cola/ASP World Tour," says Graham Stapelberg, ASP executive director. "Internationally, competition on the links is growing nearly as fierce as in the water."
Today, some of the top pros, including Slater, John Shimooka and Ross Williams, are playing with PGA pros and pro beach volleyball stars in the Surf & Turf Golf Classic at Maui's Wailea Golf Resort.
The tournament is presented by Ocean Pacific, which also sponsors the OP Pro, the first event of the Triple Crown of Surfing. Proceeds will go to the EGBAR Foundation, which supports programs that educate youngsters about the environment. It will present a Maui student with a scholarship at the tournament awards ceremony.
The Reebok Surf & Turf Charity Golf Tournament will tee off at 8 a.m. Pearl Harbor Day at the Ewa Beach International Golf Club. It is open to pro surfers, surf industry members and anyone who wants to have a good time and donate their entry fee to a tax-deductible charity. Call (714) 851-2774 to enter.
The first Reebok/Gotcha golf tournament at Newport Beach last summer raised $7,500 for Hoag Hospital's Project Wipeout, an educational program targeting surf-related spinal injuries.
The Ewa Beach tournament will raise money for Wave Riders Against Drugs, a program started by Kauai surfer Mike Young.
If the contest season were to end today, Hawaii surfer Rochelle Ballard's No. 7 rating would boot her off the World Championship Tour for the first time in eight years. Women’s championship
By Greg Ambrose
added to Triple Crown
Star-BulletinBut the wily wahine isn't worried. In this first year of a two-tiered structure for women's pro surfing, Ballard is holding an ace in the hole.
When the last wave is ridden and the final score tallied at year's end, the top five finishers on the World Qualifying Series will join the top six WCT women on the elite tour next season. Ballard is sitting pretty at No. 2 on the WQS as the tour comes to her backyard for the season finale.
And, if Ballard needs extra incentive, for the first time in its 14-year history the Triple Crown of Surfing will offer a championship title for the wahine surfers.
"It's about time," Ballard said. "We have our own little niche in Hawaii now."
"It's long overdue," agreed Randy Rarick, executive director of the Triple Crown of Surfing. "The growth of women's surfing in the last couple of years has brought them into a position they deserve."
Hawaii's Megan Abubo is on the verge of making it onto the elite WCT and has the most to gain from the extra contest in the women's Triple Crown.
With a strong finish at home in the three-star WQS Women's OP Pro, the four-star WQS Quiksilver Roxy Pro, and entry into the WCT Quiksilver Roxy, Abubo could be on the WCT next year.
WRAD uses testimony and videos from top pros at school assemblies to praise the benefits of a drug-free life.Derek Ho has been rehabilitating an injured knee that knocked him off the world tour and is trying to make a miracle reappearance in the Pipeline Masters, where he won the world title in 1993.
He's definitely ready to show how far his rehab has progressed at the Ewa Beach tournament. "If I can't surf against them, at least I can beat them on the golf course," Ho said.
But the real action will be in the ocean. Even though Slater's early world title victory has taken a little luster off, there still will be drama in this year's G-Shock Triple Crown of Surfing.
The competitor who does best in the three contests at Haleiwa, Sunset Beach and Banzai Pipeline wins the Triple Crown title, plus a $7,500 bonus and the respect of his peers. And more.
Hawaii surfers are determined to defeat Slater and keep the crown in Hawaii.
Defending Triple Crown champion Kaipo Jaquias is doubly motivated. Jaquias is on the bubble, No. 27 of the 44 pro surfers on the elite World Championship Tour. Only the top 28 remain on the tour next year, joined by the top 16 finishers in the second-tier World Qualifying Series.
Although Hawaii's John Shimooka, Shawn Sutton and Conan Hayes are rated lower on the WCT than Jaquias, they can remain on the tour next year with a good showing in the two remaining WQS events, the OP Pro and the Rip Curl World Cup.
Kauai's Andy Irons has surfed his way aboard the WCT by performing well on the WQS.
The first event of the Triple Crown is the OP Pro, three contests in one. The $70,000 event features a three-star (more money + more points = more stars) WQS event for the men and women, and the OP Junior Surfing Championship. The nation's top 32 amateurs 18 years old and younger will battle for $2,500 in scholarships.
Contest information: 637-6376.
OP Hawaiian Pro; OP Junior amateur; Haleiwa, tomorrow through Nov. 23
