Unruly surf delays finals of G-Shock Hawaiian Pro

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

Shocking conditions brought the G-Shock Hawaiian Pro to a premature halt yesterday.

Cory Lopez of Florida surfed through treacherous conditions yesterday to advance to the semifinals of the G-Shock Hawaiian Pro. Bernie Baker photo

"I definitely think it's a good decision," said Kaua'i's Andy Irons, who won his quarterfinal heat. "It was pretty treacherous out there."

The question wasn't whether to postpone the contest yesterday, but when. Morning conditions were fine, but the winds and waves started to grow by mid-day. Several surfers asked Randy Rarick, the executive director of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, to stop the contest earlier in the day.

Sunny Garcia, the defending world champion and winner of last year's G-Shock Hawaiian Pro, was one of them.

"You can't surf this," he said. "I've surfed bigger waves than a lot of guys, and I love surfing big waves. But this wasn't surfing big waves. If you're lucky, you'll catch one wave (in a heat)."

Garcia caught just two waves in his quarterfinal heat and was eliminated. He had eight minutes to catch a third wave and possibly advance, but spent nearly the entire time battling the currents.

"Of course I'm unhappy because I lost," said Garcia, who owns a record five Triple Crown of Surfing championships. "But I didn't even want to be out there in the first place. I think this was putting surfers' lives at risk."

As proof, Australian Kieran Perrow had four of his surfboards snapped in half by yesterday's waves, and he had to be rescued by lifeguards after a wipeout in his quarterfinal loss.

"I swallowed a lot of water; I thought I was going to die," Perrow said. "But it was just bad luck. I was in a bad spot. You come to Hawai'i expecting to compete in big waves and the toughest conditions."

Rarick said he decided to start the quarterfinal round even though the waves were rising because: "At that stage, the waves were contestable. Unfortunately, the swell kept coming up and the winds got worse."

Once the first of four quarterfinal heats started, Rarick said he was committed to completing the entire round.

After the completion of the quarterfinals, only eight surfers remain in contention for the $10,000 first prize.

The semifinal field consists of two surfers from Hawai'i (Irons and Myles Padaca), four from Australia (Mick Fanning, Steve Clements, Jake Paterson and Richard Lovett), and two from Florida (Cory Lopez and Damien Hobgood).

"Hopefully it'll be a little smaller and the conditions will clean up," Lopez said. "(Yesterday) you were constantly paddling. If you stopped paddling for a minute, you'd get sucked out and face the possibility of taking a big set on your head."

Hawai'i surfers eliminated along with Garcia yesterday were Pancho Sullivan, Bruce Irons, Roy Powers, Kalani Robb, Fred Patacchia Jr., Shane Dorian, Brian Pacheco and Ross Williams.

In addition to the completion of the G-Shock Hawaiian Pro — which is the first jewel in the Triple Crown of Surfing — the Bear Hawaiian Pro Longboard Invitational will be held sometime this week at Ali'i Beach. Officials have until Sunday to complete both contests.