Kalani Robb

Newport Beach surfers Todd Miller and Mark Caffey, Huntington Beach's Mike Mattison, Barry Deffenbaugh and Mark Moreno joined San Clemente's Terence McNulty in advancing through the second day of competition Friday at the Katin Team Challenge on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier. Top seeded surfers, including Lisa Andersen, will join today's competition, with Sunny Garcia and Kalani Robb, both from Hawaii.

Defending Op Pro champion Sunny Garcia would have liked a few more days to settle in and practice surfing the Huntington Beach break, but in his first heat, it didn't seem to matter. Starting in the second round of the main event, Garcia easily won his first heat, scoring 24 points to the second-place Richard Lovett's 22.64. "I wanted to get here early but my sponsor, Billabong, had a contest in Jeffrey's Bay (South Africa). I didn't get in until Tuesday," Garcia said.

Shane Beschen appeared relaxed going into the final heat of the Body Glove Oceanside surf contest, and even in the water, he was quiet. He seemed content to sit on his board and wait for the waves he wanted. Beschen sat and listened as Rob Machado, Todd Holland and Kalani Robb took off on a series of smaller waves, scoring fives and a couple sixes on the judge's 10-point scale.

A year ago, Marty Thomas of Long Beach was thinking about giving up surfing. Between 1988 and '92, he was ranked among the top 16 surfers in the world. But when his ranking dropped and he failed to make the World Qualifying Series tour, he faced the facts. "Those were some bad years," Thomas said. "It seemed I couldn't win anything. At that point, I started to have some serious doubts about my surfing."

A week ago, Sunny Garcia stood in almost the same spot in the media area of the scaffolding overlooking the swells on the south side of Huntington Beach pier and bitterly ripped Australian Michael Campbell, who had just beaten him in the final of the Bluetorch Pro. Sunday, Garcia lashed out only at the waves, carving his trademark powerful turns and slashing cutbacks that sent buckets of water spraying in wide arcs as he dominated the final of the Panasonic ShockWave U.S. Open.

Tita Tavares didn't seem to notice the waves were no good. The Brazilian so dominated the field in the finals at the elleven women's U.S. Open at Huntington Beach Saturday that her worst scoring wave was better than any of her competitors' best waves. "I don't feel so horrible," runner-up Megan Abubo of Hawaii said. "Tita even caught that one at the end of the heat and it ends up being, what, a 7.50? Everyone out there was looking around saying, 'What the heck?' " Tavares ran away with the U.S.

The city block-sized area just south of the Huntington Beach Pier on Friday finally looked like the staging area for a major surf contest. After five days of small waves and mostly unrecognizable contestants, the list of the competitors for the Honda Element U.S. Open of Surfing became familiar to the throngs of spectators, and the waves grew in stature as well. Add in a blue sky and the beginning of the event's spinoff activities and it was an aesthetic day at the beach.

In a repeat of the women's final last year, Australians Neridah Falconer and Layne Beachley faced off in the U.S. Open finals Saturday. Last year, Falconer pounded Beachley to win. This time, Beachley held her off for the title. "I'm feeling really relieved," Beachley said. "This win is such a confidence boost. I just hope I can keep it going for the rest of the year." Unlike the morning, when the waves were big, the afternoon surf offered little for the two.

Darren Angel of Northridge advanced to the quarterfinal round of match play at the U.S. Junior Amateur golf championship Friday before falling on the final hole at Echo Lake Country Club in Westfield, N.J. Angel, a 17-year-old senior at Granada Hills High, was defeated on the 18th hole of his match, 1 up, by Terry Noe of Fullerton. In a morning match, Angel defeated Marion Moore of Orangeburg, S.C.

Pauline Menczer might not be a crowd favorite in Huntington Beach, but the thousands of spectators who watched her defend the women's title Saturday at the Philips U.S. Open of Surfing provided a wealth of inspiration. Menczer took the lead from fellow Australian Trudy Todd late in the 30-minute final, which also included Sofia Mulanovich of Peru and Jacqueline Silva of Brazil. Menczer totaled 18.96 points for her three best wave scores, followed by Todd with 16.80.