Sunny Garcia and Jeremy Flores were disqualified from the Breaka Burleigh Surf Pro on the Gold Coast, Australia, after being involved in a fight with a local surfer.
It all started with a strong exchange of words between the Australian surfer and Garcia's son, a 16-year-old youngster.
The local Aussie suffered several bruises. It was all recorded by a beachgoer's mobile phone. The fight broke out in front of hundreds of people on the beach.
The local surfer was punched and was held underwater several times.
Sunny Garcia said he was protecting his son after the man allegedly cut in front of the youngster. The victim didn't press charges against both surfers.
ASP International implements a zero-tolerance policy in relation to violence.
In accordance with the ASP Rulebook, immediately following Saturday's incident, then-active surfer Jeremy Flores was suspended from the event competition at Burleigh Heads, and then-eliminated surfer Sunny Garcia was suspended from the next event on the ASP calendar that he was scheduled to attend the ASP 4-Star Burton Toyota Pro in Newcastle.
The ASP Rules and Disciplinary Committee will reconvene following the closure of the active police investigation to determine whether further disciplinary action is required for both athletes.
"On his official site, Jeremy Flores says:
"All I can say is that everything that has been said on the news and all the stories people hear is told in a different way, which makes it look very bad."
"I just stood up for 16-year-old Stone Garcia while a local surfer was getting aggressive with him. Next thing, he got aggressive with me, and I defended myself".
"The ASP decided to take me out of the event because a new rule says that no violence should be tolerated in a professional event."
"I agree with that rule 100%, but it wasn't the case for me. I just defended myself while I was training in the contest area before my heat", says the European pro surfer.
Watch what happened. Discover the worst scenes of surf rage and localism.