The 2000 World Surfing Champion and six-time winner of the Triple Crown did concede he wished he’d brought a bigger board. The 200-pounder was riding a 6-foot-3 that he carefully applied a sponsor’s laminate to before paddling out.
But the waves were challenging enough to make breakwater his “new favorite Southern California spot,” he said before saying good by to the Luhrson brothers, who had invited him up to surf, and then driving off in his black camouflage Toyota monster truck. Garcia divides his time between homes in San Clemente and his native Oahu.
For local surfers Friday’s swell signaled the start of the Big Wave Challenge. The contest is sponsored by South Bay Boardriders Club and includes $5,000 in prize money for the surfer who catches the biggest wave this winter. Chris Wells, Derek Levy, Greg McEwan, Scott Johnsen, Michael, Jude and Angelo Luhrson, Randy, Matt and Tracy Meistrell, and Redondo High’s Connor Beatty were among the local surfers jumping off the rocks at the breakwall on Friday. Also demonstrating he deserves all the attention he has been getting in the surf media was 20-year-old Santa Cruz pro Nat Young.
Lifeguard Kip Jerger, who was patrolling the beach at the breakwater Friday afternoon, said he thought the waves were bigger that morning at Indictor in Palos Verdes. He said the light crowd that joined him for the high-tide session included Hermosa surfers Ron Robuck and Pat Ayau
At the El Segundo Jetty, on Friday morning, Matt Mohagen pulled into a barrel that photographer Brad Jacobson said was bigger than the wave that won Mohagen last year’s Big Wave Challenge title. A photo of Mohagen emerging from the barrel with arms uplifted in a celebratory pose dominated the second front page of Saturday morning’s Los Angeles Times.
El Segundo board builder Tyler Hatzikian and Body Glove team manager Matt Pagan also provided plenty of shots for the bank of photographers on the beach, Jacobson said.
