Portions of this interview, recorded by Matt Warshaw, ran in the February 1988 issue of SURFER, in an article titled "Sunny Garcia: Storm Watch." Garcia was 17.

After 9th grade. I'm still waiting for these papers, or like a card or something, to prove I'm out of school and working. As far as I know, right now I'm probably illegal. Like if a cop pulled me over and asked why I'm not in class, I'd probably get taken in.

What did your parents think of your dropping out?

I didn't really ask them, or talk to them much about it. They weren't too stoked. But there wasn't much they could do, I was dropping out no matter what anyone said. Bob [Hurley, Billabong CEO] actually gave me incentives to stay in school. None of my sponsors wanted me to turn pro, but I had my mind set.

Oh yeah. I never liked school, as far back as I could remember. My parents told me I got kicked out of school for the first time when I was in first grade.

I was seven, I started at Mali Point, we lived right across the street. Nancy Emerson taught me how. I kept my board at a friend's house because I got grounded so often that it was easiest to just sneak out of my house without a board.

Years ago. My mom finally got the point that grounding didn't really do anything. It just made me do whatever I was doing all the more.

Seems like you'd have to be tough to grow up there on the West Side.

Yes and no. If you can't keep your nose out of trouble, yeah, you better be tough.

You didn't keep your nose out of trouble.

No, no. I got put in the hospital. That's another one of the reasons I quit school when I did. Some girl said I slapped her in the head. I was nowhere near her, but that didn't matter, she said I did it. Her brother walked into the classroom—he was a boxer, twice my size—he walked in and just beat the shit out of me.

Yeah, the door slams open and this huge guys comes right in and starts whaling on me. A crazy guy. Who's going to stop a guy like that? Nobody. Nobody at school, anyway. I just tried to cover up. I got a broken nose and two black eyes, my lip was wasted.

I went home and went surfing, then went to the hospital. My sinuses were all clogged. They had to drain my sinuses. I ended up staying in the hospital for two days, 'cause my nose wouldn't stop bleeding. They packed my nose with this rope stuff for a week.

Did you fight much before you quit school?

In grade school and junior high there were barely any fights I 

 in. If there was a fight and the teachers didn't know who started it, they just called me in.


Surfing kept me out of trouble the last couple years, pretty much. I get frustrated on the Tour and I want to fight. But that's just like everyone else. I hit my board sometimes. I hit walls. See this? (Lifts right hand, flexes fingers, points to swollen knuckles.) That's because of (best friend and fellow pro surfer) John Shimooka. He got me frustrated in England, and I wanted to beat him up, so I whaled on the wall.

Are you getting mellower as you get older?

Yeah, we're fine. I live with my mom still. My parents are divorced. I talk to my dad a lot on the phone, I talk to both of them, when I'm traveling.

A few weeks earlier, Garcia made his first world tour final, placing second to Barton Lynch at the 1986 Op Pro. On the scaffolding directly after the final, when the results were announced, Garcia looked furious.

Why were you so pissed off at the Op Pro? You surfed up through the Trials, all the way to the Main Event finals, but you looked really unsatisfied up there.

I wasn't pissed off that I lost, really. I was pissed off because they were rushing me. Like I'd just surfed my brains out, had just barely dried off, and they just shoved me up on stage, you know? What I really wanted right then was just something to eat. I didn't eat all day.

Did it hit you later on that you'd done really well?

It did. Kind of. I mean, nobody's happy when they lose, you know? Even if it's a final. You've still lost. Nobody remembers who got second.

What Top 16 guys have you beaten so far? (Hands over a current ratings sheet.)

I beat Tom Carroll, Occy. I beat Kong, Potts, Damien. I beat Hans, I beat Winton, I beat Shaun, I beat Gerlach, Burness. I've never surfed against Barton except at the Op. I beat Derek Ho, I beat Mitch Thorson.

(Smiles) But you know, I've been beaten a lot too.

Dane [Kealoha], all the way. I loved the way he surfed. I still do. He's still my idol.

You trained with Rabbit (Wayne Bartholomew) a year or so ago. What's his role been in your career?

He's kind of directing it. Billabong kind of set that up.

You went to Australia and lived with him?

After the '86 Gotcha Pro, right when I turned pro, yeah. He worked me pretty hard.

No, mostly he just made me surf a lot. That was pretty much it. He got me up every morning, and we'd go surf this point wave near his house, and the whole thing was to catch a wave, ride as far as you could, then run back to the top of the point. We did that for three weeks. By the time I left Australia, I was in the best condition.

Me. But until this summer, after the Op Pro, I didn't really have any extra money, so . . .

Are you investing, or just putting the money in your bank account, or . . ?

No, I don't have a bank account. I never have. Or I had one when I was maybe seven. I saved up and bought a surfboard. I saved up $24, and my mom paid the rest.

So what did you do with your Op Pro check?

Bob [Hurley] has it. And my check from the Stubbies. That's all the money I have, everything else I've spent. But when I get home I'm going to open a bank account. And try to get a driver's license.

Who handles all your travel stuff? Plane tickets and hotels and things like that?

Pretty much anybody I can find. I just kind of grovel. In France I stayed with Todd Holland.

I like Todd a lot. I get along with him. He's mellow and he doesn't really bother anybody.

If I'm with the right people and nothing frustrates me, I'm perfectly fine. I like things to be quiet.

No, I'm even more quiet at home. I'm just not an outgoing person. My last girlfriend, she liked to socialize and everything, and I'd just stay home. That's why we're not together anymore. I don't like going out. I'm just not into the party scene, and being around a lot of people. It frustrates me.

Sitting at home with my girlfriend and watching TV.

No. I've probably been drunk six times in my life. I've never done any drugs. I've smoked pot a couple times. But no coke, nothing like that.

Do you feel like you're the kid on Tour? Do you hang with the older guys?

I don't really hang out with anybody. I hang by myself. I get up early in the morning and surf, come back in the afternoon, watch TV and eat.

You're kind of a junk food addict, from what I've seen.

I'm starting to clean it up a little. I'm not eating as much candy as I did last year.

On an average day I'd probably have five Snickers bars, and maybe five or six Cokes. It was bad. But I'm doing better. I go out to places where it's not just junk, or fast food. In fact, I don 't eat Snickers at all anymore. I like pie still, definitely. But that's not really junk, right?

Yeah, well, every kid eat's his share of junk food. (Pause) It's just that I like to eat everyone else's share too.

No, not really. I don't really think of my age. As far as who I hang out with, I either fit in with people or I don't. It doesn't have anything to do with age. I think I've matured faster than most guys my age. With a lot of kids in California, it's still like Mommy and Daddy's little boy. Like, Hey mom, wipe my butt for me. I've been taking care of myself since I was 14.

Are you aware of guys like Wayne Lynch and Dave Eggers, people who were famous at a really young age and it seemed to kind of mess them up in some way?

I'm not worried about it. Eggers, for instance. Did you see how many pictures he had in the mags before he turned pro? Until the last couple issues, I've never had pictures in the magazine.

But it'll come now. It'll come this year.

It'll get me stoked, I think. I've worked for it.

You can deal with it, where they couldn't?

I think those guys got the attention before they should have, and that's not true with me. (Pause) Anyway, I don't really need the photos. I just want to surf, the rest I don't really care about. I don't even like talking about surfing too much, you know? My surfing, or anybody else's surfing.

I remember in school, you know how most kids talk about surfing, and that's it? I used to get so sick of that.

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