Ocean Pacific believes the big waves of the North Shore will help it showcase surfers such as Johnny Boy Gomes, above. John S. Callahan, Special to the Star-Bulletin

"I'm counting the days until it starts," said Bonnie Crail, marketing vice president for California-based Ocean Pacific sportswear.

Ocean Pacific stepped into the revolving door of sports sponsorship to take over for Wyland Galleries, which had a memorable five-year run of contests at Haleiwa's Alii Beach Park.

Ocean Pacific brings to the Triple Crown the stability of having sponsored the OP Pro at Huntington Beach for 14 years. But the OP Pro had reached a critical mass at Huntington, Crail said. The contest attracted more than 50,000 spectators daily, but they often had to watch the world's best surfers compete in slack waves, which translated to poor media coverage.

OP considered moving its contest to the powerful waves of southern Mexico, but that region just couldn't compete with the mystique of Hawaii's excellent surf and the well-run Triple Crown of Surfing. "The choice is spectators or good waves, and we chose good waves," Crail said.

That's good news for top-rated Hawaii pro surfer Sunny Garcia, who has won the OP Pro the past two years. The OP Pro will kick off the Triple Crown, beginning Nov. 16 at Haleiwa, followed by the World Cup at Sunset Beach and the Pipeline Masters.

The OP Pro is a World Qualifying Series event with a $40,000 purse for the men's competition and $5,000 for the women. "We can always expand to a World Championship Tour event (with a $105,000 purse), which I would love to do," Crail said.

Perhaps the most intriguing element the new sponsor has to offer is the Junior Pro, an amateur competition for surfers 17 and under. "It will be good to test the juniors from the mainland in Hawaiian waves," Crail said. "And it will give the juniors from Hawaii a showcase they haven't had in the past. Let's show how bloody good they are in their home waves in front of home crowds."

"The local guys are stoked," said Randy Rarick, executive director of the Triple Crown. "Just look at the previous junior champions: Kelly Slater, Kalani Robb and Rob Machado," who went on to become the current world champion, and two top-rated world pros. "This will give Hawaii juniors the best chance they have ever had to make a mark internationally," Rarick said.

"If the surf cranks, Ocean Pacific will be happy. The bottom line is the surf, and we've got the best waves in the world."

The Association of Surfing Professionals has reached an agreement with London-based Communications Services International for a worldwide distribution package that will televise the World Championship Tour contests in 86 nations to an estimated 150 million households. That represents a 200 percent increase in households that were reached in 1995 (The Triple Crown has it's own TV deal).

The package will also provide satellite broadcasts to local news stations for all 14 world tour contests.

"This deal allows sponsors to ... spend dollars to produce events that don't need big beach crowds to get their message out," said Randy Rarick, executive director of the Triple Crown of Surfing. "This allows the tour to go to exotic locations with good waves and no crowds, and allows better waves to be the focus of the tour."