Sunny Garcia>>

by Angelica Clemmer


Name: Vincent Sennen Garcia

Nickname: Sunny, my mom gave it to me

Age: 40

Weight: 205lb

Stance: Regular

Home Town: Waianae, HI

Home Break: Maili Point

Board: Any one that's working that day

Sponsors: Rocks Star Energy Drink, Affliction Clothing


Sunny Garcia was born in the Westside of Oahu, Hawaii, he is the 2000 ASP WCT World Champion, six time winner of the Hawaiian Triple Crown, and plenty of other wins in his surfing career to fill an entire page. A consistent competitor that has achieved many of his goals and dreams. Garcia is now competing on the WQS again, keep your eyes on him. One of the best surfers in the world, intelligent, real, and like all Hawaiians full of the aloha spirit. I caught up with him while he was in California this past week.


Looking past all contests results, the media etc. How do you feel about being considered one of the best surfers in the world? I don't know, to me I just enjoy surfing, so I don't really think about all the other stuff.


what makes you keep competing? bad habit (laughs) I think cause I still feel like I can win some events but other times I really enjoy competing and having fun, but I think the main reason is probably 'cause I just enjoy it.


What events are you looking forward to this year? We have a surfing event I think in August, I want to say the 9th and 10th or 10th and 11th it's called the Surfer Cross, its one day of riding motocross and one day of surfing and you are teamed up with one with one pro motocross guy and one pro surfer and the best over all results from the day of surfing and the day of riding, you get the winner. It's right around the US open in Huntington, we leave the day after that event, I come off surfing the event in Huntington and I compete in the Surfer cross event.


being from Hawaii how important is it to win the Triple Crown? is it more important than the world title? I much rather have world titles, but the next biggest thing is winning the Triple Crown. We have more world champions than Triple Crown champions, so I think to win the Triple Crown as well as the world title is a very important thing.


What is it like to travel and compete with your friends? Is it easier or harder? Depends on which friends you lose to (laughs) there are some friends that you are genuinely happy for them because they won and sometimes they deserve it, and there are some friends that you never want to lose to.


Who are your surfing idols? Dane Kealoha is my favorite surfer of all time and then Mark Occhilupo and Tom Curren are my other two favorite surfers. Occy is one of my favorite people in general.

How important is family life to you? My family is very important to me, it is all about being a family and hanging out, making sure that they are happy everything else comes second to family.

you race motocross but have been getting into off-road car racing? I raced the Lucas Oil off road trucks,I think it was two weeks ago they offered me to race again in a truck but the only problem is the US Open is going on at the same time, as much as I would like to skip the event and go to the truck racing my agent is not quite happy on that one. Hopefully I can get back in the truck in a couple more weeks for the rest of the year and later on. We'll see if they have room for an extra truck for me to race.

I don't know if this is true, but I heard that you don't like sand? (laughs) nah I love sand! I just don't like sand on my feet, I'm not the guy, I always tell my wife, if I'm going surfing that's one thing, but I'm not the guy to sit on the beach,(laughs) that's just not me, I go on the beach for one specific reason..... to surf.


What is Surfers Healing Charity? Surfer Healing is were we take the kids with autism surfing, which is a really good thing, the kids get out there and they seem to respond really well in the water, I've been part of that, and I just got involved with the Mauli Ola Foundation it is another foundation were we take kids with Cystic Fibrosis surfing, for some reason the kids that live near the ocean or are near the water seem to do a lot better than the kids that are not around the ocean, I guess the sea weed in the water helps break up the mucus, we have been taking these kids surfing and they have responded really well just being in the ocean. I have been spending a lot of time with the Mauli Ola guys, taking kids surfing, in fact in August we are doing a trip, we are taking a tour bus, and taking kids surfing, we are starting in Texas all the way up through Florida, all the way up the East Coast, and end up in New York.


Whats going on with BYB surfboards? are you part owner? Yeah I'm a part owner in BYB, we are actually just starting to get it back going, we kinda let it go for a little while. We have all the three partners, Albie McGarry, John Glomb and I, all met up yesterday, we brainstormed what we can do to bring the company back, we never really left, we just kind of lag for the past couple of years 'cause everybody has been doing their own thing, so we are really going to try to make a push and bring the company back. We have Pat Mulhern as one of our shapers, he is from the East Coast, and he shapes really good for waves over there, they are really good boards and got some good art work on them.

How many tattoos do you have? My whole right arm is sleeved, half of my left arm is sleeved, three on my back, Hawaiian Islands on my right side, a portrait of a girl on my left side, half of my left shin got tribal tattoos, I think that's it, and I have death and taxes across my chest. Tattoos are about whatever makes a person feel good, you really got to like your tattoos 'cause you are pretty much stuck with them for life.


ever surfed or been to Delaware? No, I haven't even been to DE, I've been to New York, been to Miami


What is some advice you can give to the Delaware surfers, that can help our surf community progress and grow in the right direction.

Just keep surfing, when I was a kid I had so many people telling me, what are you doing? surfers are bums, but surfing has progressed so far and when I just started there was only a handful of top guys making good enough money to live a pretty good life. There are kids now that are sixteen and are making millions. The sport has come a long ways, so if kids are getting into surfing, put your head down and grind it out cause you can make anything possible, even if you are not surfing, you can be anything that you want to be, as long as you put your head down and work really hard. When I was in third grade I was already surfing and I remember saying I'm going to be world champ and my friend was telling me I was full of it, but I knew that's what I wanted and once I started surfing I knew that I wanted to be good at it and I knew that I wanted to be world champ at a really young age, and I always strived to be that even when young, even when I lost the world title I came really close in 95' when I was 25 years old, I thought that I would never get another chance, but I still grind-ed it out, and who would have thought I would have won the world title at 30 yrs old. Here I am at 40 yrs old still doing the tour, I'm not lighting the world on fire by any means right now but I'm still living my dream and still getting paid good money and still having a good time.


Anything else you want to say To all the young aspiring professional surfers, dream big, cause everything is possible in life.

Thanks for the interview Sunny, good luck on the tour.

Makuakai “the prince” Rothman, conquers monster waves, competitions, music, and Hollywood all with the aloha spirit.

by Angelica Clemmer

He'e nalu Hawaiian for surfing, is a sport of kings, lava-rock landscape carved with petroglyphs of surfers are evidence of the importance surfing had on Hawaiian culture.  Rothman has the blood of kings, born and raised on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, son of surfing royalty Eddie Rothman, founder of the Da Hui, a group of native Hawaiians that protect the culture and enforce surf etiquette in Hawaii.   Makuakai is Jewish-Hawaiian and 100% waterman, started surfing at three years old, surfed Waimea at eight, started tow-in  surfing at thirteen, it is of no surprise that in  2002  at eighteen years old he won the Billabong XXL Big Wave Challenge Award, by catching a 66 foot wave!.

Award-winner,big-wave charger: tow-in or paddle, pro surfer, innovation and evolution of the sport, deep-sea hunter, water patrol work, stunt work, plenty of movies, sponsors, travels around the world, entrepreneur, musician and the list continues.  At 25 years old I’ll have to say, Makua you have it going on!

Got a hold of Makua this past Friday and this is what we talked about.


Stats:

Name: Makuakai Rothman   (his name means guardian of the sea in Hawaiian )

Nickname: "The Prince"  'cause my daddy is the King  (laughs)

Age: 25

Weight: 157

Stance: Regular

Home Town:  North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii

Home Break: The North of Oahu

Board:  5'11"      18" 3/8  and 2"3/8

Sponsors:  Luka, Monster Energy, Boost Mobile, Oakley , Da Hui






What's the smallest wave you will surf? when you do you say, it's too small I'm not going out.     I'll surf everything, if its half a foot and that's all there is I'm out there.

I think if you hesitate when a wave is coming you can totally mess up, would you agree? what are your thoughts on hesitation in the water?   Well, hesitation is not a good thing 'cause see you can get very hurt.  If you are going to commit and that's the wave that you want, you better just commit 100%, you have less chance of injuring yourself or someone else if you commit totally, once you hesitate and lock up for that one second that could be the worst mistake you ever made.

What is your life motto?  My life motto?  pure aloha.

How do you unify a surf community like you guys have in Hawaii?  It is just a family you know, a family where everyone is equal, no body is more, no body is less, everybody stands together and believes in the right things, and everything should be fine.

What are some of the goals you would like to achieve in your life?  I just would like to achieve, making people happy, giving back to the community, and working really hard to make a positive impact on where I'm from and just be a real genuine person, that's about it.

Could you leave surfing behind and just focus on acting or modeling?  I would never leave it behind, but if the opportunity arose, and it was paying a lot of money or you know if the price is right, I would go and definitely try my hand at modeling or acting. I could never ever just not surf. (laughs)

I saw a photo online of your garage, you have a lot of boards, how many do you have? um I don't know a few hundred?  wow that's awesome, I have three  (laughs)

Who are your surfing buds, the friends that you go out surfing with every day?

Everyday I surf with Marcus Hickman, Kai Barger, Mason Hoe, TJ Barron,  (asks himself who else?)........ Kawai Lindo, Rico, I have a lot of friends, my causin Saul, Ikaika Kalama, there is like twenty of us that depending on the day we surf together.

Who owns Da Hui clothing line? you or your dad? Do you have a retailer in Delaware?

I think....I'm pretty sure that's online for Delaware, but we have a bunch of things in the works right now where it is going to be distributed pretty largly on the east coast, pretty soon here.   I'm part owner, my father, David Stant, kinda forget the other owners, Kawika Stant.  My dad and myself are the majority owners.

Does music play a big role in your life?   Yes, I'm a really big musician, been playing since I was a kid and I went to Israel and played a really big concert for my first time for thousands of people, a lot of people have been trying to get me to play music, some people wanted me to record, they want to do a CD but my music is kind of just for my family and myself and my enjoyment, maybe one day I might put some of my music out there, but for now it is just for my family in the back yard, my cousin is getting married and he really wants me to play for his wedding, so I will probably play, for an hour or so at his wedding. (laughs)

What are some of the events you are looking forward to in 2010?   I'm looking forward to the World Tour Championships, the Eddie Aikau,  Pipe Line Masters and The Triple Crown, and few select barrel riding events , that's pretty much it.

What's your favorite spot to surf in the whole world?  Hawaii in general, the North Shore, is where I love to be, and it's my life, so yeah basically the North Shore, it's my home and my favorite surf spot.

Do you have a girlfriend?  No I don't.

Do you and Da Hui do a lot for the environment and give back to the community?  Largely, we do huge beach clean ups, we do a bunch of Charity work, we work with all the kids at the hospital, I'm currently one the board members of Mauili Ola, a company that deals with kids with cystic fibrosis and we are always looking out for the land, we participate at rallies, and everything that goes to benefit our land, our island over here.  Anything our club can be involved with that is for the environment we are 100% behind it.

Have you ever surfed Delaware?  No (laughs) I've never even been to Delaware, I would love to come over there and maybe if someone can help put something together, then get a bunch of people, I would love to come out and surf with the people and hang out.  Spread the aloha spirit, and our sport to all the people over there.

Do you Facebook?   Yes

What do you think about the movie North Shore?   I was in the movie North Shore!  you were a baby.   Yup, North Shore, is your typical stereotyping of the localism and stuff like that but it is a classic movie, it was what it was.

Was it torturing to answer these questions?  Nah not at all, I enjoyed all of it.




Thanks Makua for the interview, you are charming and inspiring as the size of the giant waves you like to surf.   Check out dahui.com and Makua Rothman on Facebook.    Also you can watch some of the movies he has been in, North Shore,(1987) Blue Crush (2002),Billabong Odyssey (2003) Pipeline (2007),Six Days in Paradise(2009).