"Very hesitant and extremely careful."
It has been almost one year since Sunny Garcia, 2000 World Champion and six-time Triple Crown winner, was hospitalized in Portland, Oregon after a reported suicide attempt. He had been found unconscious at his home. A few months later, to the surprise of doctors, he began breathing on his own and responding to stimuli, after being taken off sedation and the family reported progress with his condition but then all communication suddenly ceased.
Yesterday, on the Instagram page @prayforsunny, Sunny’s daughter Kaila wrote:
I know it’s been a long almost six months since the last time I posted anything and there is a reason for that. I just wanted to explain briefly why there have been no updates on my dad. I just wanted to say how grateful and thankful we are for all of your love and prayers for my dad through these last ten months! Prayer is so strong and
I know it works! God is so good and though the pain of what has happened to our dad has been excruciating and unexplainable we know that God has a plan for him.
We have been very hesitant and have to be extremely careful with what we say that pertains to our dad. I have asked one of our attorneys if it was OK to explain why we have not been allowed to update anyone on our dad.
We have been told we are not allowed to give out any information to anyone about our dad anymore. And that’s why the updates stopped.
I’m sorry it has to be this way because I know there are so many of you who love and care for my dad including those of you who have known my dad for 30-40 years or longer and are so eager just to know how he is doing. We wish things were different but this is the reality of this situation for now.
Thank you all again so much for all your continuous prayers! Please please continue to pray for our dad!
Certainly cryptic and, with no other reporting, difficult to parse. Respecting the family’s privacy is important but the desire for information also understandable. Sunny is, of course, a legend and well-loved in our surfing world and many have donated to the family’s medical expense fund in order to pay for the myriad expenses associated with his ongoing treatment. The most surprising donation came from Percy “Neco” Padaratz, who fled Pipeline in 2007 after he hassled hell out of Sunny in their Pipe Masters heat. On the beach, Neco jumped a fence and climbed into the relative safety of the judges’ tower and was given a police escort back to his house.
Why donate to this guy ,he made money blew it and he seems like he was a prick
The only sickness ppl don’t like talking about is HIV so what are we suppose to think?
They should add to Sunny’s chest tat – “Death and Taxes and Vegetables”
Ouch. Yes, let’s hope it all comes out clean in the end and he’s back in the water somehow, at some point in time.
how many wives did this guy have?
Don’t have much sympathy for a bully.
I saw him punch Wade Sharp in the face,who was wearing sunglasses, in Durban in the 90s just before Wades heat. The guy is an absolute bullying prick.
He is a typical hypocritical surfer. Yeah love nature and the ocean and all that bullshit but continuously beat up and intimidated his ‘fellow brother’s.’
Knobhead!
Pretty sure he wasn’t too stoked about his past poor behaviour in the end and no doubt that sort of thing would’ve accumulated to push him to try and kill himself.
But what he’s got now is worse I think, dead but still living, unsuccessful in physically killing himself but dead in almost every way and too fucked to even be able to try it again.
Gotta be worse for him…
Glad I’m not the only one.
Surfers are unique creatures. Out of the 8 billion souls on this planet it’s surfers who truly fathom the sublime beauty of the ocean. We recognize its rhythms and moods as being the very essence of life itself. No matter where you’re from, surfing defines all of us and for many it’s often the best reason for our existence.
Hawaiian surfers are unusually blessed. Positioned 20 degrees north of the equator with perfect juxtaposition of volcanic islands, waves, reefs and tradewinds, Hawaii spreads languidly across the middle of the north Pacific with as near to ideal surf conditions that could ever be imagined.
Sunny Garcia seemed to have it all. A typical island story. A product of limited means from the beautiful Waianae coast. Blessed with abilities to transcend his poverty he fortuitously arrived at a time when surfing was in nascent bloom of advanced design and technique. His power and prowess led him into notoriety with worldwide fame and fortune. Somewhat mercurial, his aggressive antics belied the intelligent, happy, easygoing and engaging demeanor that he most frequently demonstrated.
As can happen when someone so blessed attempts to kick out early, others may be angry and confused about the rationale. Sunny, like all of us, is/was affected by all the external and internal challenges of life and the foibles and frustrations of our fellow humans. As surfers, it’s especially difficult on our psyche when we realize that our body has a limited shelf life. When our body fails us and despite the mind’s ability to carry on, it becomes an untenable realization that’s often fraught with despair.
Death is the destination we all share, no one has ever escaped it. A worn and cliched platitude to be sure but a recognition we humans tend to blissfully ignore until we reach the very end.
You don’t necessarily have to like Sunny or excuse his past alleged transgressions in order to have empathy and feel sadness for his current plight, even if it was self inflicted.
Life can be a hellish ride, even for the most talented, capable and outwardly blessed. It seems that’s often the kind of human who is most susceptible to an early check out, self induced or not. It breaks my fucking heart every time I hear or think about Sunny. I miss him dearly.
Like many high achievers, Sunny is a convoluted man, a product of his time and circumstance. No matter what happens going forward he has given all of us reason to continue to celebrate him and to cherish every minute of our own short stint on this beautiful spinning ball of H20.
Generally not into analogies, But you are the Hawaiian Longtom. Major props mate, keep writing. Big Sunny fan here.
Much like Bourdain who had a “job” that millions dream of…
Probably better written than the last 10 Chas and DR articles put together. Thanks, Huli.
the last 100. BG is a schizophrenic mess
Content is king, dude. They have to smash out articles non stop. Once I realised that, I stopped getting aggravated by all the spelling mistakes and appreciated it for what it is.
If they need help paying the bills and recruiting viewers, they should just farm it out to us some more. I’d gladly write 1 shit article a week on whatever, to get clicks for them.
Huli, short, smart & beautiful dialogue. Meaningful to me, and I’m sure, many who have taken the time to read this. Mahalo
Do you write more, anywhere?
Mahalo nui Tee. You’re too kind. I used to write for a living but now mostly for pleasure. I’m a bit rusty but when a java buzz is on and something’s been stewing inside my noggin I’ll sit and let it flow. I do write under a couple nom de plumes elsewhere but BG is just for fun. I’ve really come to appreciate a lot of the funny players here and I always love to give Chus and Dreks holy hell.
Can’t help but notice your avatar is a black lab puppy. I’ve had labs my whole life, mostly black. All of them were 4×4 trail dogs and loved to surf. It’s funny, on another current thread here on BG they’re talking bout their dogs following them out into the lineup. That’s the prob w/ teaching labs to surf. One lab of mine would follow me out to Kaisers and dog paddle circles in the channel barking at the sets. Then she would catch a wave back in and go mooch treats from the boys in the parking lot.
I prefer the shorter version, expoused by Sunny himself: “one day i’m gonna be old and fat and live at Makaha and get any wave I want”
Trash article – why bring up a 13 year old nothing beef with Neco.
Because it’s anti-depressive!
You’re saving lives!!
because he’s a cunt but has been deified because he tried to off himself
jesus has a plan for sunny….a glorious, beautiful plan.
Unlike that bastard allah
Sunny’s rights under HIPAA are his and his alone. His family, though well intentioned, do not have the right to release Sunny’s medical information for the sake of comforting Sunny’s fans around the world. Persistence in doing so would result in the State stepping in by conservatorship to represent Sunny’s rights against his own family, which would obviously be something his family, nor Sunny would want to see happen. The State could even step in, be named conservator and argue that the family presents a danger to Sunny arguing for removal of visitation privileges. Likely the attorney is protecting the family from the CA nanny state.
Oh thank you!
immediately debunked. 🙂
Is suicide illegal in CA?
His alleged attempt was in Oregon… but I would imagine it illegal there too.
Yeah I just looked it up
It used to be quite frowned upon.
In another news site it was stated that his legal guardians had told the lawyer to tell them to stop talking, though didn’t say who his legal guardians were…
Wife?
Internal family politics in the public are never nice.
Leave him alone…
It was a damned post on Insta covered widely before I threw it up.
But you bring up a fine point. Should we maintain silence due nasty taste here?
Quite possibly, though most people are naturally interested in what happens to an ex-champion, for good or bad
Yes, silence is a good idea, but not so much because of nasty taste, more that there is nothing to report. Better Clickbait in a headline with Shark and/or Florida
I’m interested in Sunny’s well being.
Yes because the news is unfortunately going to remain bleak, so no coverage is necessary.
Yeah I was wondering this to as I thought his daughters were his guardians. But whatever, if they want privacy – they got it. Hope he’s doing ok.
Yeah true, leave him alone…
Not exactly how HIPAA works. HIPAA restricts the hospital and other healthcare providers from sharing patient informaiton. HIPAA has no authority or power over his family sharing his information.