Tricia Gill of Newport Beach Rides Her Board of Education : Surfer Earning High Marks on Pro Tour

Tricia Gill used to have a hard time getting to Newport Harbor High School in the morning.

She would set off pedaling her bike with the best of intentions. But trouble typically developed around 36th Street, where she would get a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean.

If the waves looked better than the prospects for history class--and this was not uncommon--she would play hooky and devote the day to surfing.

“If the waves were good, I’d say, ‘Oh, gosh, what’s another day in school?’ ” she said. “That’s how I went through high school. I was a flake.”

That sounds like a formula for postgraduate failure, but it turned out to be work experience. Gill’s academic detours yielded a more lucrative international job than those of her peers with gold-star attendance records.

Although she may never be invited back to Newport Harbor to give the Career Day speech, her status as the eighth-ranked woman on the worldwide Assn. of Surfing Professionals tour adds a certain celebrity to the Class of ’83.

She took up surfing at age 13 in a Newport Beach recreation department class and placed second in the first contest she entered two years later.

That was the start of an outstanding amateur career that culminated in her selection as one of two women representatives of the United States at the amateur World Championships in 1984, where she placed second.

But upon turning pro in 1984, she faced new obstacles, some of which she believes were manufactured in her own mind.

“Physically I was OK, but mentally I was lost,” she said of her first pro season. “I was really scared and very inconsistent. I felt I was on shaky ground, surfing against all those people I had seen on TV for years.”

Now in her third year as a professional, Gill, 20, seems to be conquering the sense of intimidation that stood between her and her potential.

“This year, I’m trying to make a big boom, to do the best I can do,” she said.

She finished atop the standings of the local Women’s International Surfing Assn. tour this summer, winning two events, placing second twice and third once. In Stoked USA contests, she finished third overall.

The key word here, one that she mentions often, is “consistency.”

She will defend her title today in the WISA Man/Woman Team Challenge, which starts at 7 a.m. and continues until about 2 p.m. at the San Clemente Pier. Other top women entries include World Champion Freida Zamba of Florida, as well as No. 11 Liz Benevidez of Hermosa Beach and No. 12 Toni Sawyer of Australia.

Gill, whose team won the event in 1983, was the 1985 champion with partner Noah Budroe of Hawaii, but Budroe is unavailable this year because of a scheduling conflict. Her next choice, Newport’s George Hulse, had to back out after being selected to the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. team, leaving her still seeking a partner two days before the contest.

Today’s partners event will provide a low-pressure warmup for the O.P. Pro championships at Huntington Beach beginning next Tuesday, the most important contest in the continental United States.

Gill, when asked about her worst experience, immediately recalled last year’s O.P. Pro, where she finished ninth after being eliminated by her coach and manager, former World Champion Debbie Beacham of La Jolla.

The circumstances that gave it a bitter flavor occurred while she and Beacham were in the water. Gill hadn’t caught her quota of four good waves and when Beacham saw a big one developing, she yelled for Gill to take it.

Gill did and produced a ride she believed would cinch the victory. But the judges, unable to hear what had gone on between mentor and protege, ruled that Beacham had priority on the wave and Gill had committed interference in taking it.

“I thought, ‘There goes my whole life,’ ” Gill said. “I cried so long I couldn’t believe it. I sort of felt like a baby, but I was devastated.

“I just couldn’t comprehend that I’d lost my biggest event--against her--on an interference call. I went home and it was my birthday and my mother threw a big party for me and I couldn’t enjoy anything. It’s never left my head, what happened.”

Gill, at 5-feet 1-inch, is one of the most diminutive women on the pro tour, but her form on the board is a combination of power and control.

“I kind of have a different style,” she said. “What I try to do is be hard--not like a guy, but aggressive. I try to put every teeny little muscle I have in my body into every move I make.

“I don’t know if you could say I have a beautiful style, but I like it and you can tell it’s a girl’s style. I like to look smooth but also real aggressive.”

She says she has a fear of towering waves, such as the legendary monsters off Hawaii, a feeling that has only recently begun to abate.

“Once you’re a pro, you’re expected to be willing to go out there in the 15-footers--and die,” she said. “I have a really bad fear of big waves. It’s a thing like people who have that phobia about tall buildings. Once I get to the top of a big wave, my stomach drops out and I feel like I’ve lost all my air.”

She believes she made progress earlier this year when Beacham and Margo Oberg, two fearless big-wave riders, worked with her in Hawaii.

“The wave is always in control, but I felt I was more in control than before,” she said. “I think I’m getting over it. I wasn’t as scared.”

One of Gill’s happiest memories is of the day the Newport Harbor principal attended one of her amateur contests.

She says she plans to attend college--but not until she learns to ride past the beach without responding to the magnetic pull of the waves.