The 1992 Pipeline Masters produced a couple of footnote-worthy points of interest. Teenager Jack Johnson made trails finals. Slater took his first Masters win, and for those counting, yes, that's 21 years ago. But for the most part, the '92 Masters was a lesser, brutal version of the contest, with no world title on the line (Slater already had it in the bag), remembered mainly as the venue in which Sunny Garcia demonstrated, unconditionally, just what a tough motherfucker he was.

A massive sandbar had filled in the channel, and finals day, as Tim Baker reported in 

 mag, was "Pipe was as bad as it gets. Evil. Closed-out and violent." In the early heats, Liam McNamara singlehandedly provided much of the drama, hassling any competitor within reach like a roller derby enforcer. In a three-man no-priority-rule heat that included Jeff Booth, who needed a mere 2.7 in the dying minutes to requalify for the next season, McNamara and Booth paddled side-by-side for a nothing little insider, then McNamara angled his board and paddled straight up Jeff's back. Both surfers missed the wave. McNamara began gesturing wildly. Booth rabbit-punched McNamara three times on the side of the head. 

 told a bemused policeman standing among the crowd to arrest Booth immediately, then charged over to contest officials screaming about lawsuits. He advanced out of the heat and calmed down—then got into a shouting match with defending Masters champ Tom Carroll in the quarterfinals.

Garcia by that time had already been taken to the hospital once, after tearing muscles in his arm during the first heat of the morning. He was back, left elbow full of cortisone and heavily wrapped in bandages and duct tape, but nonetheless looking very much like the favorite going into the finals. Having already won the World Cup at Haleiwa, he was already a shoo-in for the Triple Crown title, his first of many. (He also neatly put McNamara in his place, on stage just before the finals. "I'd like to thank God for putting me here," McNamara told the beach crowd, "and may the best man win." The mic went to Sunny. "A lot of the best Pipe riders have already been knocked out. I think the luckiest man is going to win."

The waves continued gnarly. Lynch never really got rolling. Slater and McNamara each had a solid ride. Sunny had one good one and a decent backup, and the lead. The final was just 13 minutes old when Sunny got thumped on a Pipeline closeout, went headfirst into the reef, and staggered into shallow water, asking "What heat is it?" He left the beach on a stretcher, bound for his second hospital visit of the day.

And then, weirdly, the surf just shut down. There was still a half-hour left in the final. The minutes ticked by, and Garcia's lead continued to hold. At around the five-minute mark, Slater suggested to McNamara and Lynch that they all just sit the rest out and give Garcia the win. Lynch agreed. McNamara shrugged and said, "Let's just make sure an Aussie doesn't win." Slater took that as a "no" vote, and with two minutes left got a quick cover-up on a chest-high Backdoor wave, banked off the closeout, and picked up a 4.33 score—good enough for the win. Garcia, at that very moment, having checked himself out of the hospital, was hitchhiking way back to Pipeline. He couldn't win. He couldn't quit, either.

1992 MASTERS: KELLY SLATER TKO OVER GARCIA

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