Longtime pro surfer Sunny Garcia hospitalized

Longtime professional surfer Sunny Garcia has been hospitalized, the World Surf League announced on Twitter early Tuesday morning.

The league confirmed "with heavy hearts" that Garcia has been admitted to the intensive care unit at an unspecified hospital amid speculation about his condition late Monday. The 49-year-old Hawaiian has won the Triple Crown of Surfing — which consists of three challenging events off the coast of Oahu — on six occasions, most recently in 2004.

"Sunny has always been a great champion of surfing, both in and out of the water," the World Surf League wrote on Twitter. "Our prayers are with him and his loved ones at this deeply challenging time."

The WSL did not specify what led to Garcia's hospitalization.

Garcia has been a professional surfer for more than three decades, becoming one of Hawaii's most accomplished and well-known representatives in the sport. He won the World Surf League's world championship in 2000, when the organization was known as the Association of Surfing Professionals, and he was inducted into the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.