Are the stars finally aligned for a Mavericks surf contest?
Twenty top surfers paddled out Friday afternoon for a ceremonial kickoff to the big-wave season with new owners hoping to hold an event at Mavericks for the first time since 2016
Mavericks star Jeff Clark participates in the opening ceremony of the 2018 /2019 World Surf League Big Wave Tour Mavericks Challenge at Mavericks Beach in Half Moon Bay on Friday.
PRINCETON-BY-THE-SEA >> A thin cloak of fog shrouded the circle of surfers sitting in the calm lagoon just inside of Mavericks.
The annual paddleout of 20 competitors, and their rainbow sherbert array of enormous surfboards, Friday afternoon christened a new big-wave season and provided a festive backdrop to an event that has seen more onland political squabbling than in-water daredevil action for much of its two decades of existence.
]Now part of the World Surf League’s Big Wave Tour, this version of the Mavericks surf contest gives the surfers hope they finally have the right organization running the event. With nature’s cooperation, it will be held sometime between Thursday and March 31.
Adding to the fascination this year: Women will have their own portion of the contest for the first time ever.
“Now we just need Mother Nature to do the right thing,” said a dripping wet Mike Parsons, the Big Wave Tour commissioner and one of the sport’s pioneers.
Some of big-wave surfing’s most famous chargers, such as Greg Long, far right, participated Friday in the opening ceremony for the Mavericks Challenge. The window for the contest near Half Moon Bay is Thursday through March 31. Mavericks is one of three big-wave events on this season’s tour, joining the Nazare Challenge in Portugal and the Jaws Challenge in Maui. The World Surf League bought the
event a year ago after previous operator Cartel Management had filed for bankruptcy in what was the latest debacle in the contest’s fractious history.
The new owners scrambled to hold an event last season after taking control in October but the waves never quite cooperated. Now they’ve got everything in place to pick the perfect day over the next four months.
The competition has been held only 10 times since its creation in 1999 because surfers want ideal conditions of big swells, little wind and optimal tides to showcase the power of dropping into some of the world’s most treacherous waves. The last contest was held in 2016 when Nic Lamb of Santa Cruz won while fellow Santa Cruz surfer Ken Collins had to withdraw after almost drowning on a wave with a 30-foot face.
Surf conditions have been the least of World Surf League officials’ concerns the last year as they navigated the complicated California coastal permit system that became a political minefield in the summer when a group of women pressed the issue of equal pay — and won.
“It has been draining for sure but well worth it,” Parsons said. “We all know a magic swell on the right day” will allow everyone “to celebrate this place.”
Some of those who have watched the contest evolve from the beginning don’t share the enthusiasm.
Film producer Grant Washburn, who competed in all 10 events, said the Mavericks contest never goes as expected.
“It’s not the ocean that is the problem, it’s not the surfers who are the problem, something else pulls the rug,” he said.
Sarah Gerhardt of Santa Cruz, the first woman credited with riding a Mavericks wave, also is skeptical about how the future will unfold. The Cabrillo College chemistry instructor expects political squabbles to continue.
“There are competing desires and strong personalities,” she said.
South Africa’s Grant Baker races to stay in front of the charging curl at Mavericks, the big-wave surfing break near Half Moon Bay.
Big-wave surfers hope for a massive swell before March 31 to hold the contest for the first time in three seasons. (Photo: WSL/Briano) But the competitors who squeezed into wetsuits on Friday put everything aside as the North Pacific begins to awakens from the long lulls of spring and summer hibernation. Mavericks comes to life in the winter when massive northwesterly groundswells from the Gulf of Alaska and Sea of Japan batter the Central Coast.
The Bay Area break has attracted extreme surfers since the early 1990s although local rider Jeff Clark was the first to start riding the wave in the ‘70s.
“This is a whole other level,” said Danilo Couto, a former top competitor who
now helps run a program to train big-wave surfers in water safety.
Couto’s crew from the Big Wave Risk Assessment Group held sessions with some of the competitors before the opening ceremony Friday morning.
What makes Mavericks special?
“The geography of the place, the mechanics, rocks, the cold water,” Couto said. “It requires a lot of dedication.”
Couto started his safety program in 2011 after famed surfer Sion Milosky died at Mavericks. The death marked the second fatally at the break that also took the life of respected Hawaiian waterman Mark Foo in 1994.
While caution was in the light winds Friday, so was
the anticipation of a season blessed with big swells.
“Just being in the environment of wintertime and coming out to this special beach there is no other feeling — it is heaven on earth,” Half Moon Bay invitee Hunter Murison said.
Big-wave surfers are a special breed in a sport that will go mainstream with its addition to the 2020 Summer Olympics. Only a handful of the competitors are full-time professionals who travel the world chasing big waves.
Mavericks has been one of their regular stops for decades. The break’s reputation gained traction after the 2004 cult surf movie “Riding Giants.” Then came the 2012 feature film “Chasing Mavericks” that starred Gerard Butler.
The Hollywood treatment has helped define the surf break that is situated a good half mile beyond Pillar Point where a bulbous white radome from the Air Force station is a prominent landmark.
Once the sole province of men, the break has seen an influx of women such as Bianca Valenti of San Francisco proving their mettle. Now 10 women will surf in a three-heat format battling for an equal $66,600 prize purse as the top 10 male competitors.
Jamilah Star of Santa Cruz is a pioneer bigwave woman surfer who has pushed for equality at Mavericks. (LiPo Ching/ Bay Area News Group)The World Surf League made a wide-sweeping decision to offer equal prize money for all of its competitions after the Mavericks women’s campaign.
“The future for younger girls is to grow up feeling they are equal from the start,” said Jamilah Star of Santa Cruz, a pioneer bigwave surfer. “Not being programmed or trained to be less than boys. Or watch the boys.
“It’s time for the boys to watch us.”
Mostly, it’s time to watch all the surfers who paddle into mountains of water that rise up like a grizzly on hind legs.
It’s time to marvel at their breakneck dance on nature’s curl.
“The waves are still the waves and the surfers are still the surfers — and that’s the best part,” the veteran Washburn said.