Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia (Wednesday, April 26, 2000) – Hawaiian Sunny Garcia inched closer to his dream of a world title and extended his Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World ratings lead today by winning the Rip Curl Pro. Now two events into the 16-event 2000 World Championship Tour season, Garcia is undefeated. In his 14th year on the ASP World Tour Garcia is determined to finally wear the crown in 2000. This is the strongest season opening he has ever had.
Garcia’s victory over Brazilian Flavio Padaratz, 29, earned him his third coveted Bell trophy, having previously won the event in 1995 and ’96. Today’s final was a dramatic 35-minute affair which was staged two hours drive southwest along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road from the main contest setup at Bells Beach. The final scoreline read 23.05 for Garcia to Padaratz’s 21.0.
Garcia is currently experiencing the biggest competitive roll of his surfing career, having recently taken out the first World Championship Tour (WCT) event of the year at the Billabong Pro, Queensland, Australia; the ASP specialty Da Hui ‘Shoot-Out’ tournament in Hawaii the week prior to collect US$50,000, as well as his fourth Triple Crown of Surfing title in Hawaii
last December. Today’s win, in clean 1.5-2 metre hollow right-handers along the Great Ocean Road’s pristine coastline, rockets him 540 points ahead of his closest rival, Australia’s Taj Burrow, en-route to his first ASP world title in 14 years touring.
Garcia attributed his victory to his return to his Hawaiian roots after a year of California living, a strict diet imposed by his wife, and the patience of Rip Curl Pro organizers, who were rewarded with excellent waves today.
‘My wife put me on a heavy diet and I think I’ve lost about 20 pounds since the beginning of the year,’ he further added. ‘I feel better and have more energy. I’ve been surfing a lot, plus I moved back to Hawaii (from California to Kauai), and the waves have been insane. This morning, the waves we were surfing were exactly the same as what I have been surfing at home, just a little bigger.’
After exiting the chilly waters victorious, Garcia was quick to give thanks to Rip Curl and contest organizers for holding off yesterday, even after the surfers were willing to finish at Bells in inferior conditions.
‘I’d like to thank Rip Curl. Under heavy pressure yesterday from all of the surfers to run at Bells, they made a pretty heavy decision, probably one of the heaviest I have ever seen, with
all of the surfers wanting to surf, but the contest organizers said it wasn’t good enough. I’d like to thank them for holding off and coming down here today, we got really good waves.
‘Half way through the final I was almost content with second (place), as Flavio had a pretty good lead. Then I kind of just told myself that second wasn’t going to be good enough, so I put up a fight and luckily I got that 7.8 and it put me right back into the heat. I can attribute that to just wanting to win. I want to win a world title before I retire, and I’m getting pretty old (he turned 30 at the end of January). Watching Occy win the world title last year really inspired me.’
The World Championship Tour now heads to Tahiti for the third stop – the Bluetorch Pro
(9-19th of May).
Results of The Rip Curl Pro final day:
1. Sunny Garcia (Haw) US$15,000
2. Flavio Padaratz (Brz) $8,000
3. Nathan Webster (Aus); Taj Burrow (Aus) $4,000
5. Luke Hitchings (Aus); Peterson Rosa (Brz); Damien Hardman (Aus); Shane
Beschen (USA) $3,000
Top 16 ASP WCT Ratings:
1. Sunny Garcia (Haw) 2000 points
2. Taj Burrow (Aus) 1460
3. Flavio Padaratz (Brz) 1260
3. Jake Paterson (Aus) 1260
5. Nathan Webster (Aus) 1230
6. Damien Hobgood (USA) 1110
6. Shane Beschen (USA) 1110
8. Luke Egan (Aus) 1010
8. Damien Hardman (Aus) 1010
8. Peterson Rosa (Brz) 1010
11. Cory Lopez (USA) 1000
11. Armando Daltro (Brz) 1000
13. Shane Powell (Aus) 970
14. Victor Ribas (Brz) 900
14. Michael Campbell (Aus) 900
14. Shea Lopez (USA) 900
Further Information Contact
Jesse Faen, ASP Int’l. Media Director: 61-(0)-407-189-289
jesse@aspworldtour.com
Gary Dunne, Rip Curl Pro Media: Mobile 61-(0)-419-812-911
gdunne@ripcurl.com.au
Or visit: www.ripcurl.com or www.bluetorch.com or www.asplive.com
For Free Digital Images contact Pierre Tostee / ASP World Tour Photographer:
pierre@tostee.com; 61-(0)-419-753-148