HONOLULU – Hawai‘i’s Sunny Garcia, 34 blazed a trail to victory of the 20th anniversary Vans Hawaiian Pro today, to become surfing’s second only $1,000,000 prize money winner, breaking the barrier with his $15,000 winner’s check. His career prize money
HONOLULU – Hawai‘i’s Sunny Garcia, 34 blazed a trail to victory of the 20th anniversary Vans Hawaiian Pro today, to become surfing’s second only $1,000,000 prize money winner, breaking the barrier with his $15,000 winner’s check.
His career prize money now stands at $1,000,355 following his fifth Vans Hawaiian Pro event win. Garcia took the events in 1992, 1993, 2000, 2002, and puts him on track for a record sixth Vans Triple Crown of Surfing Series title.
Garcia has been surfing longer than any of today’s three other finalists have been alive. Not one of them had even been born by the time he surfed his first competition here in 1978 at age eight. A mountain of experience is what stood between him and his opponents today, evident in the relaxed yet calculated way he methodically won his way through the rounds and ultimately the final. Garcia has been competing professionally for 19 years and was the world champion in 2000.
Second place and an $8,000 purse went to Australian Phillip MacDonald, a 25-year-old from the southern New South Wales coast. It was his highest placing in a Triple Crown event after a third at the Pipeline Masters last year. Third place was relatively unknown Brazilian Bernardo Pigmeu who was rated 32nd on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS) rankings coming into the event.
Following today’s result, he is now rated 22nd and has a chance to qualify for the 2005 elite World Championship Tour (WCT) next week at the final WQS event – the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach. Pigmeu, 21, won $6,000.
Fourth place was Bruce Irons (Kau), 25, who was in brilliant form leading up to the final, but suffered a broken board, broken skin, and broken momentum after a wipeout on his first ride. He took home $4,000 and as one of the best all-around Hawai‘i surfers, has a great shot at challenging Garcia for the Triple Crown.
“For sure I’ve got my eye on the Triple Crown,” he said.
Excellent waves poured through the right-hand break at Haleiwa with many hefty sets pushing through at around eight feet.
With so much water moving on the reef, the extra muscle Garcia is famous for paid major dividends. At 209 pounds, Garcia was 33 pounds heavier than the next largest finalist, MacDonald at 176 pounds, and threw it around to his advantage.
The amount of power and speed he was able to apply to every one of his turns could not be matched by a single turn of anyone else.
While he was the last of the four finalists to post a ride, once he was riding, the show was his. Garcia scored 8.17 out of 10 points on his first wave, and 8.57 points for a two-wave total of 16.74. None of the other finalists caught a single wave as good as either of Garcia’s.
“I’ve had a long relationship with this wave,” said Garcia of his history with Haleiwa. “It’s for sure my favorite wave.”
“I love winning. I still have the desire to win. I always know coming home to Hawai‘i that I can win, here. I’m going to try winning all the events. I’d especially like to win at Pipeline. I’ve placed second there four times,” Garcia continued.
“Last year, I was starting to doubt myself after two knee surgeries, so it’s nice to be winning again,” he said.
The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing pulls up stakes and relocates to Sunset Beach for the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing, Nov. 20-Dec. 7.
The outlook for the next swell has this Friday looking favorable to a start at Sunset.
The third and final event of the Series is the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters, Dec. 8-20.
