Un moment de légende.... et de fair play
n 1995 Sunny Garcia was leading the rankings going into Pipe, with Rob Machado second and Kelly Slater third. Between them they had won six of the nine events surfed and all three were in contention for the world title. Garcia however, only had to make the third round at Pipe to win and claim the title that many thought he deserved. With his ratings lead and Hawaiian experience he was the unbackable favourite. Despite his undeniable surfing talent Garcia's status as favourite was given further assistance by his first round oppponents in the Pipe Masters: Pipe legend Gerry Lopez and young Hawaiian Ross Williams. With five minutes to go in their heat Garcia was leading, Lopez second and Williams last. Lopez had already dropped in on Williams once but, despite being penalised, was still ahead of him on the scoresheet. With the clock counting down, Williams took a small inside wave and Lopez blatantly dropped in a second time. The gameplan was instantly clear; by deliberately rubbing himself out, Lopez allowed Williams, a fellow Hawaiian, to progress with Garcia. It was was highly dubious sportsmanship on Lopez' behalf, and his actions were to backfire in spectacular fashion. If it wasn't for the final drop in Lopez would've progressed to the next round and, as he was the lowest seeded surfer he would've met the highest seeded surfer in round two. Sunny Garcia was the highest seeded surfer. There could be no doubt that Lopez would've repeated his first round behaviour, thereby handing Garcia the heat and subsequently the 1995 world title.
6 сен 2024
