Sunny Garcia has conquered the Clash of the Legends, held during the Reef Hawaiian Pro 2013, in Haleiwa.
A bad day turned good for six-time Triple Crown of Surfing champion Sunny Garcia today, bowing out of the main event but getting the better of a fun reunion with three other legends of the sport to win the exhibition Clash of the Legends.
The $10,000 first prize definitely helped to lift his mood. His former tour traveling partner Kaipo Jaquias was second, Michael Ho kept third, and Brad Gerlach was fourth. This was Garcia's second Clash of the Legends title.
"Winning the Legends is always fun, but I was training hard hoping to try and make a bid for a 7th Triple Crown. Losing today that kind of dashes all of my hopes. But Clash of the Legends is a good thing", says Garcia.
"I want to see if they can push next year to have Mike (Ho) surf against Mark Richards and Shaun Tomson. I think that would be an insane Clash of the Legends".
Meanwhile, underdog Jesse Mendes posted the highest two-wave combination of the event so far, 17.9 points out of 20 (9.2 and 8.7). Mendes, 20, from Sao Paulo, was close to flawless on his backhand attack of the famously fun break of Haleiwa.
Ramzi Boukhiam posted the first perfect 10 of the event. Morocco's only full-time professional surfer was runner-up in the ASP World Junior Championships and is keeping momentum.
"It was a good wave, it was the second wave of the set so it was pretty clean. I just surfed it like nothing crazy, but just did three good turns at the right spot. To do a 10 in Hawaii, super cool!", says Boukhiam.
"It's more like the waves that I have at home, big right handers, so I feel confident here in Hawaii. My homeland is not an island and it's cold water but it's big waves like that so it's kind of similar surfing, power surfing. No airs, just power surfing", says Boukhiam.
Hawaii's Billy Kemper was the top local in the Round of 96, scoring an even 17 points to easily advance. Kemper knows it's way too early in the event to get too confident, with the top seeds set to enter the draw on the next day of competition.
"It's a big winter and I was kind of nervous after my shocker at Sunset in the 4-star and coming into this event," adds Kemper.
"I'm from Hawaii and growing up over here you don't really worry about who you're surfing against it's more the ocean and finding your waves and I put in a lot of time over here and this is what I trained for and what I love to do".
Clash of the Legends
1. Sunny Garcia (HAW) 32.37pts - $10,000
2. Kaipo Jaquias (HAW) 26.93pts - $5,000
3. Michael Ho (HAW) 20.59pts - $3,000
4. Brad Gerlach (USA) 14.07pts - $2,000
Reef Hawaiian Pro | Round of 96
Brian Toth (PRI) 16.83pts ;Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 14.93pts ; Thomas Woods (AUS) 7.83pts ; Gony Zubizarreta (ESP) 4.24pts
Nathan Hedge (AUS) 14.00pts ; Tanner Gudauskas (USA) 13.34pts ; Vicente Romero (ESP) 10.20pts ; Seth Moniz (HAW) 8.80pts
Dylan Goodale (HAW) 11.87pts ; Sean Moody (HAW) 10.63pts ; Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 10.50pts ; William Cardoso (BRA)
Ramzi Boukhiam (MAR) 17.83pts ; Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 15.57pts ; Santiago Muniz (ARG) 9.94pts ; Kiron Jabour (HAW) 8.80pts
Matt Banting (AUS) 14.90pts ; Gavin Gillette (HAW) 14.83 ; Stu Kennedy (AUS) 14.33pts ; Sunny Garcia (HAW) 13.33pts
Marc Lacomare (FRA) 17.47pts ; Dale Staples (ZAF) 16.94pts ; Billy Stairmand (NZL) 13.56pts ; Jack Freestone (AUS) 7.54pts
Yadin Nichol (AUS) 14.53pts ; Connor Coffin (USA) 11.07pts ; Ian Gouveia (BRA) 11.03pts ; Keanu Asing (HAW) 9.37pts
Maxime Huscenot (FRA) 14.70pts ; Kai Barger (HAW) 11.93pts ; Koa Smith (HAW) 9.43pts ; Charles Martin (GLP) 6.53pts
David do Carmo (BRA) 12.67pts ; Messias Felix (BRA) 12.63pts ; Beyrick De Vries (ZAF) 11.73pts ; Kaito Ohashi (JPN) 10.34pts
Leandro Usuna (ARG) 11.13pts ; Evan Valiere (HAW) 11.10pts ; Dillon Perillo (USA) 10.06pts
Ian Walsh (HAW) 13.60pts ; Cooper Chapman (AUS) 11.70pts ; Tom Whitaker (AUS) 10.10pts ; Ricardo Christie (NZL) 4.90pts
Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 14.14pts ; Nathan Yeomans (USA) 12.67pts ; Cory Arrambide (USA) 11.63pts ; Peterson Crisanto (BRA) 0.83pts
Caio Ibelli (BRA) 13.00pst ; Wade Carmichael (AUS) 11.07pts ; Adrien Toyon (FRA) 9.50pts ; Makai McNamara (HAW) 8.83pts
Billy Kemper (HAW) 17.00pts ; Hodei Collazo (EUK) 11.10pts ; Ian Gentil (HAW) 8.50pts ; Garrett Parkes (AUS) 5.27pts
Jesse Mendes (BRA) 17.90pts ; Jay Thompson (AUS) 16.13pts ; Gabe Kling (USA) 9.40pts ; Alex Smith (HAW) 8.03pts
Tomas Hermes (BRA) 11.70pts ; Nic Von Rupp (PRT) 10.40pts ; Krystian Kymerson (BRA) 9.47pts ; Joan Duru (FRA) 8.83pts