Report from Association of Surfing Professionals Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia (Easter Sunday, April 15, 2001). Current world and defending three-time Rip Curl Pro champion Sunny Garcia of Kalihiwai today continued his dominance of the 2001 tournament by storming past 1999
Report from Association of Surfing Professionals
Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia (Easter Sunday, April 15, 2001). Current
world and defending three-time Rip Curl Pro champion Sunny Garcia of Kalihiwai today continued his dominance of the 2001 tournament by storming past 1999 world and 1998-event champion Mark Occhilupo (Aus). Similarly, current world number 29 Danny Wills (Aus) was too strong for world number 10 and last year’s runner-up Flavio Padaratz (Brz). The pair will now meet in the quarterfinals.
Current world number 16 Andy Irons of Hanalei was another top scorer, overcoming a commanding lead held by world number five Jake Paterson (Aus) on his final do-or-die ride. He’ll now face CJ Hobgood in the quarterfinals.
Perfect 4-6 foot (1.5-2m) conditions again flowed into the Bells Beach lineup, and together with magnificent weather, made for an epic day of surfing.
Garcia, 31, posted the highest total of the day – 25.3 out of a possible 30, as well as the best single wave score of 9.0 points, to leave ‘Occy’ in need of a combination of rides. The Hawaiian withstood his knee injury, leg cramps, and a lack of sleep to forcefully announce he’s not about to let anyone else get the better of him.
“I couldn’t sleep last night,” began Garcia. “Same kind of scenario as surfing against Kelly Slater (USA) twice. It was pretty incredible to knock him out of the event and come up against Occy and see the waves today; I knew I was going to have a really hard heat on my hands. I got lucky with good waves and Occ fell on a really good one. I’m pretty psyched.
“I like surfing against hard draws,” he commented. “It brings my level of surfing up, but then again, being the world champ is not an easy task coming against wildcards like Kelly Slater. I’m sure he’s going to surf in a few more events this year and I’ll probably end up against him and it will become the ultimate grudge match. It’s good, though, if you get an easy heat more times than not you don’t surf to your potential and end up losing.
Official results of the Rip Curl Pro Day 6; Round Four
H1: CJ Hobgood (USA) 24.05 def. Nathan Webster (Aus) 23.3
H2: Andy Irons (Haw) 23.75 def. Jake Paterson (Aus) 22.4
H3: Danny Wills (Aus) 24.0 def. Flavio Padaratz (Brz) 22.4
H4: Sunny Garcia (Haw) 25.3 def. Mark Occhilupo (Aus) 15.5
H5: Mick Fanning (Aus) 23.45 def. Peterson Rosa (Brz) 19.00
H6: Taylor Knox (USA) 23.05 def. Greg Emslie (SAfr) 18.05
H7: Shane Powell (Aus) 18.75 def. Shane Dorian (Haw) 13.00
H8: Paul Canning (SAfr) 18.00 def. Cory Lopez (USA) 17.25
