About a week ago while sitting in my car after work on a rainy day, I received a phonecall... First though, who the hell is calling me from an unknown mainland number? I decided to answer. "Hi, this is Sunny"... Next though "F**k me, either this is a friend playing a joke, or I'm talking to a surf legend! Sure enough, it was the real Sunny Garcia - 2000 World Champ, and 6x Triple Crown winner. After some talk about surfing and cycling, we made loose plans to catch some waves together. Fortunately, the surf report was looking better and better all week... As tempting as it was to go out, I figured I'd get back to training on my bike and give me arms some rest on Thu / Fri so that I'd be ready to surf at the weekend.
The planets lined up, and early on Saturday morning I was driving out to the North Shore of O'ahu! A little before 8am and the phone rings... "I hope you don't mind surfing in the rain!"...
I'm going to get wet anyway and it's going to take more than a little precipitation to make me bail out.
At about 8am, I met Sunny somewhere along the north shore, then drove to the house he's staying at while on island for the winter surf contests. He pulled out one board that was victim to some rocks earlier in the week. (Note - He prefers to surf without a leash because it makes him swim more!).
Amongst the pile is a new board in his quiver that he sticker'ed up with his sponsors stickers (Rockstar / Affliction Clothing / BYB / etc.)
After that we drove along the north shore to the Oakley house (They rent a beachfront house year-round)... Some Oakley guys were there to shoot some photos for their catalog, as well as various pro surfers. Not only was I going to surf with a legend, but I was riding one of his boards - A 6'-1" X 20" X 2-3/8" Patterson!
We walked down some steps to the beach, then trekked along the sand to what seemed like a good entry point. After 5mins of fighting waves just trying to get out, it was quite obvious that this isn't town! The north shore seems to be a lot more powerful. We abandoned that location, walked further up the beach, and finally made it out.
After taking a few poundings from the whitewater and duck diving some waves, it's actually happening, I'm paddling out with one of the best surfers in the world! We made it out to the lineup, amongst a mix of surfers and bodyboarders. Sunny was talking to an older surfer, and introduced me, and I later found out that that "older surfer" was Derek Ho!
After a few failed efforts at getting into a wave, Sunny said that he was going to get me a wave... He told me where to go, when to paddle, and pushed one of my feet to give me a little boost... Bam, up and riding! I rode that wave all the way to the beach and it was so awesome. More, more, more!!!
I caught up with Sunny and we paddled back out, and were passed by a surfer - Pancho Sullivan! Wow, I'm in a fishbowl of pro surfers. We spent about 3.5hrs in the water, and I caught some of my first north shore waves. Success!
It's funny the image that you can have of someone based on what you read about them in the media, but Sunny is one of the friendliest and patient guys I've come across. Just don't push his buttons! =)
One cool fact is that he just bought a road bike! Not some piece of crap from Walmart either. He rolls on a Giant TCR with clipless pedals! I feel so bad for the first driver that skims him on the north shore - "Cracks" will ensu!
