Everything Turns Up Peachy for Beachley

Layne Beachley won the elleven Pro Saturday at Huntington Beach, producing the top heat score of the four-day event in the semifinals and then pounding fellow Australian Melanie Redman in the final.

Beachley, the two-time defending world champion on the women’s Assn. of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour, came into the event without her No. 1 ranking for the first time in more than 15 months. She then lost an opening-round heat on Wednesday before crawling back through the loser’s bracket.

“After I lost my first heat, I felt like I’d hit rock bottom,” Beachley said. “I was really disappointed in my performance. I was disappointed in my lack of concentration leading into that first heat, and I think I took too much of a lackadaisical attitude leading into this event. I guess it took rock bottom to fire me back up to the top.”

Beachley, who was coming off three consecutive fifth-place finishes and had not won a WCT event since March, moved in front of Hawaiian Megan Abubo for the top spot in the WCT rankings.

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It probably wouldn’t make Sunny Garcia’s list of top 100 barrels, but the one he completed late in his quarterfinal heat against San Clemente’s Shane Beschen proved to be decisive.

The high-scoring maneuver, only the third of the contest, lifted Garcia past Beschen and into today’s quarterfinals against fellow Hawaiian Kalani Robb.

Garcia, the top-ranked surfer in the WCT standings, trailed Beschen with about five minutes remaining in the 25-minute heat, when he tucked into the three-footer and disappeared for about two seconds. The wave crumbled on top of Garcia, but he was able to stay on his feet and earn a 7.75 from the judges.

Also advancing to the quarterfinals were San Clemente’s Cory Lopez, Ventura’s Tim Curran, Cardiff’s Rob Machado, Brazilian Neco Padaratz, and Australia’s Michael Campbell and Nathan Webster.