Sunny Garcia hit the top of the wave and the $1 million mark.
Home boy rules
34-year-old Sunny Garcia
captures the Vans Hawaiian
Pro for a record fifth time
Sunny Garcia may be older, heavier and not in as good shape as he would like, but the former world champion is still one of the world's best surfers -- particularly if he's competing at Haleiwa.
At the 20th annual Vans Hawaiian Pro yesterday, Hawaii's Garcia picked up his record fifth career victory at the prestigious event.
The 34-year-old veteran first won this contest 12 years ago, and his last win before yesterday also came at the Hawaiian Pro two years back.
"It's always nice to come back and win," said Garcia, who earned $15,000 with the victory and also became just the second surfer in history to earn more than a million in career contest events. (Kelly Slater is the other.)
"This is my spot. I get to see surfers all around the world tearing it up in their waves, so it's nice to be at home and be able to take it to them in my water."
Waves were in the 8- to 12-foot-face range with occasional bigger sets for the final day of the four-day contest.
The Hawaiian Pro was a 6-star World Qualifying Series event, and also the first jewel of the men's Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. There are two more events on Oahu's North Shore left in the series, with the best overall performer named Triple Crown champion.
Garcia has won the Triple Crown a record five times as well, and now has the early series lead in trying to extend the mark to six.
In his 18th year on the pro tour, Garcia let out a scream of joy after he raised his winner's trophy. His exuberance was understandable after being forced to sit and watch most of the 2003 season while recovering from two knee surgeries.
While not completely pain-free this year and about 20 pounds above his normal weight, he still was able to execute his signature deep, top-to-bottom gouges on wave after wave yesterday.
"As long as I can still go out there and surf, it doesn't matter," Garcia said. "A little pain reminds me I'm still alive."
Garcia's top two waves in the 35-minute, four-man final scored 16.74 points (out of 20 maximum). The waves were the first two he rode in the heat, and the second one -- an 8.57, highest of the final -- came only 17 minutes in.
The other three finalists all rode more waves than the four total of Garcia, but none of them could post big enough scores during the second half of the final to overtake his lead.
Australia's Phillip MacDonald (14.57) ended up in second place and won $8,000. Brazil's Bernardo Pigmeu (11.03) took third, while Kauai's Bruce Irons (4.67), younger brother of three-time world champion Andy Irons, surprisingly struggled with wave selection and a broken board and placed fourth.
"This is pretty special," MacDonald, 25, said. "I've looked up to Sunny since I was a little kid. He's the man to beat out here. He's a bigger guy, and I'm a bigger guy, so we kind of have a fun little thing going on there. ... Sunny just got the good waves, and he surfed them like the winner he is."
Bruce Irons notched the highest single-wave score -- 9.80 -- of the day in winning his semifinal heat. He snapped hard on a 12-foot right, directly into a barrel, and recovered to come out of it for a couple of more turns.
Only 21, Brazil's Pigmeu also carved sharp turns all day to make his first pro final in Hawaii.
But it was still Garcia's day.
First competing at Haleiwa as a kid in 1978 -- before all of his fellow finalists were born -- Garcia showed that while he may no longer necessarily be gunning for world titles, he still can beat anyone on his turf.
"Everything is a bonus for me at this point," Garcia said. "I've won everything I've wanted to win, done everything I've wanted to do in this sport. ... (But) for me, it's always been about winning. There could be no money in surfing and I'd still be competing, still be pissed if I lost."
The next Triple Crown event is the O'Neill World Cup of Surfing, at Sunset Beach, Nov. 26-Dec. 7.
