{"id":12123,"date":"2009-12-06T18:19:08","date_gmt":"2009-12-07T02:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=12123"},"modified":"2009-12-06T18:20:47","modified_gmt":"2009-12-07T02:20:47","slug":"parko-snatches-sunset-from-sunny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=12123","title":{"rendered":"Parko Snatches Sunset From Sunny"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jpowcwin09Big\"<\/a><\/p>\n

About two minutes into the final of the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing<\/a><\/strong> at Sunset 39-year-old Sunny Garcia<\/strong> dropped in on an okay wave, made a couple solid turns, and then ducked perfectly into a racing right barrel. He scored a 9.7 and took the lead for the 30 minutes of the 35 minute heat.<\/p>\n

Mick Fanning<\/strong> got some waves, Joel Parkinson<\/strong> grabbed a couple, and Dusty Payne struggled as the sets backed off. Then with two minutes left Parko caught a ripper and snatched the win from Sunny. A collective old-guy sigh was heard around the world. We’d already started writing headlines about how Sunny had come in and dominated the two best surfers in the world. It would have been a great story. But obviously, it was not to be.<\/p>\n

“It feels good, but I\u2019m still bummed that I lost,” Garcia said. “I came this far and I wanted to win. I started off with a 9.4 and to need a three at the end of the heat and not get it was a little frustrating. Hopefully, they\u2019ll run the Eddie tomorrow, I\u2019ll go get some big waves and wash out this loss and get ready for Pipe.”<\/p>\n

Follow the jump for the press release.
\nBattle Begins With Classy Conclusion to ASP WQS 6-Star PRIME O’Neill World Cup<\/p>\n

SUNSET BEACH, Oahu\/Hawaii (Sunday, December 6, 2009) – You couldn\u2019t have ed it any better. The O\u2019Neill World Cup of Surfing reached its highest point in 35 years today in clean 10- to 15-foot surf after riding out the biggest waves in Vans Triple Crown of Surfing history. When all was said and done, Australian Joel Parkinson was the winner, claiming $20,000 and the lead on the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing ratings presented by Rockstar Energy Drink. More importantly, he gained momentum and psychological ground on close friend Mick Fanning, with whom he will battle for the ASP World Title at Pipeline next week.<\/p>\n

But there was even more to the story than that. Joining the Aussie mates was six-time Vans Triple Crown champion Sunny Garcia, 39, who had to finish first or second to win a wildcard into next week\u2019s Pipeline Masters and keep his dream of a seventh Vans title alive. He pulled it off as the cameras filming his life story documentary rolled. And then there was Dusty Payne, the 20-year-old from Maui who needed to do well today to become the first Maui surfer in history to qualify for the ASP Dream Tour. He did just that, finishing fourth in the final.<\/p>\n

Taylor Knox (Carlsbad) was the highest placed Californian, losing in the semi-finals to Joel and Sunny to place equal 7th.<\/p>\n

Sunny started out strongest in the 35-minute final, locking in the deepest barrel of the day, worth 9.47 out of 10, that put his rivals on red alert. Fanning and \u2019Parko\u2019 were having their own preliminary world title match up on the West Bowl. The two traded off small barrel rides for average scores, as Garcia stayed busy but couldn\u2019t find a backup for his major score. Parkinson finally managed to post a 7.0 with a couple of smooth on-rail carves and with only two minutes remaining scored a 6.17 for a late barrel through the inside. Garcia scratched as the Nixon timer counted down, ultimately failing to find the mere 3.7 score he needed for a win.<\/p>\n

Parkinson joins Hawaii\u2019s legendary Michael Ho as the only three-time winners of the O\u2019Neill World Cup at Sunset Beach. If he can win this year\u2019s Vans Triple Crown of Surfing title, he can claim a $50,000 bonus and a $10,000 custom Nixon watch. But Garcia is hot on his heels – only 31 points, or less than a place, behind.<\/p>\n

“I couldn\u2019t hear the score, but I heard the crowd,” said Parkinson of Sunny\u2019s 9.47 ride. “I knew I had my work cut out for me.<\/p>\n

“With two minutes to go (Sunny) needed a three and I felt like telling him \u2019you just gotta go anything\u2019.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a little sweeter because I\u2019m coming off a bit of an injury. Right now it feels really good because I\u2019m back on the podium and back winning going into the biggest battle of my career.<\/p>\n

“I love the Triple Crown.”<\/p>\n

While the commentators, crowd and media drooled over the Parko\/Fanning matchup today and prelude to the world title, Mick was quick to deflect the pressure to Joel.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m in the lead and all the pressure is on Joel now,” said Fanning. “He has to get third (at Pipe). There\u2019s no room for error for him. I\u2019m just concentrating on myself and getting through as many heats as possible and making it as hard as possible for him.<\/p>\n

“I just wanted to get some heats under my belt. It\u2019s getting back in that rhythm of doing heats again and everything feels real good. I\u2019m excited.”<\/p>\n

In classic Garcia style, none of his brilliance today ended up being good enough without taking the winner\u2019s cup home.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not how it starts, it\u2019s how it ends,” said Garcia.<\/p>\n

“It feels good, but I\u2019m still bummed that I lost. I came this far and I wanted to win. I started off with a 9.4 and to need a three at the end of the heat and not get it was a little frustrating. Hopefully, they\u2019ll run the Eddie tomorrow, I\u2019ll go get some big waves and wash out this loss and get ready for Pipe.”<\/p>\n

Known for being a last-minute guy, Payne wait until the last event of the year to qualify.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a dream to make the WCT,” said Dusty Payne. “I\u2019m over the moon right now. It hasn\u2019t sunk in yet and I don\u2019t think it will until the tour starts next year.”<\/p>\n

The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing now moves to Pipeline for the ultimate showdown: the Billabong Pipeline Masters, where the lion\u2019s share of the $1,000,000 Vans Triple Crown prize purse will be doled out. $50,000 will go to the Triple Crown champion $340,000 is up for grabs in the Pipe Masters and the winner there will receive a total of $90,000. Vans will also award the ASP world champion with a $50,000 bonus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About two minutes into the final of the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset 39-year-old Sunny Garcia dropped in on an okay wave, made a couple solid turns, and then ducked perfectly into a racing right barrel. He scored a 9.7 and took the lead for the 30 minutes of the 35 minute heat. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12123"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12123"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12126,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12123\/revisions\/12126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}