Surfer barred for steroid use

With the sun blazing like it’s the middle of summer and the waves

crashing down, the first bit of big news has emerged from the Op

Newport Classic surfing championship, which opened yesterday in

Newport Beach and continues through the weekend.

Professional surfer Percy “Neco” Padaratz Jr. has been stripped of

his 2005 points and banned from competition for the rest of the year

after testing positive for steroids, a surfing official said

Wednesday.

According to the official, Padaratz, 29, tested positive for three

types of steroids. He failed a random drug test conducted last fall

at a competition in France. The results of the drug test became

available in July.

“Not only is he the first athlete in the history of the sport to

test positive for steroids ... it is the first time I have had even

heard a whisper of any athlete involvement with steroids,” said

Robert Gerard of Newport Beach, the rules and discipline judge for

the Association of Surfing Professionals. Gerard said Padaratz

acknowledged that he had been using the drugs without a doctor’s

supervision to help a back injury.

The anabolic steroids -- methyltestosterone, mestanolone and

oxymetholone -- are performance-enhancing drugs, Gerard said.

Even if they were being used to treat a back problem, that in

itself would have given Padaratz an unfair advantage over other

surfers who had to skip competitions while their back injuries healed

through traditional medical methods, Gerard said.

“I unequivocally think there is no place for steroids in the

sport,” Gerard said. “There are tens of thousands of young people

that look up to these athletes.”

Padaratz won the 1999 Gotcha Pro surf event in Huntington Beach

and is one of only 45 men and 16 women who each year qualify to be on

the World Championship Tour.

He was stripped of all points won this year on that tour and the

lower-tier World Qualifying Series.

While he has a chance next year to attempt to regain the world

tour, he will be facing hundreds of competitors in the lower tiers.

“In the entire history of surfing ... only a handful of surfers

who have dropped off the WTC have been able to claw their way back,”

Gerard said.

Padaratz could have appealed his ban to the ASP board of

directors, but chose not to do so.

“He’s a good guy, by the way,” Gerard said. “This is the first

time I have ever removed someone from the tour... You can be assured

I took no delight or pleasure in having to reach this decision.”

Qualifying heats for the pro divisions of the Newport Classic are

scheduled to start today, and finals will take place Sunday.

The 17th Annual Newport Beach Surf Championships, an amateur

surfing contest, starts Saturday. Semifinal and final rounds take

place Sunday, culminating in an awards ceremony scheduled for 2:15

p.m. Spectators at the Op Newport Classic also will be treated to a

film festival.

Action begins each day at 7:30 a.m. Friday, action kicks off with

the WQS men’s round of 64. Saturday, action starts with round one of

the Recreational High School Division.

The full Sunday slate starts with round one of the Recreational

Masters Division from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m.; the first round of the

Recreational Seniors Division runs from 8:30 to 9 a.m.; the

Recreational College Men’s semifinals run from 9 to 9:30 a.m.; the

Recreational Middle School Division goes from 9:30 to 9:45 a.m.; the

WQS men’s semifinals run from 9:45 to 10:35 a.m.; and the

Recreational Masters semifinals go from 10:35 to 11:05 a.m.

Action continues into the afternoon, when the WQS Women’s final

runs from 1:20 to 1:45 p.m. and the Pro-Am men’s finals concludes the

day’s surfing from 1:45 to 2:10 p.m. An awards ceremony follows. The

film festival takes place throughout the event, including today at 6

p.m. at Lido Theater.