Mavericks Contest Window Shrinking With No Major Swells On The Horizon

Justin Cote

• February 05 2009
• 361 views
• 1 comment

La Nina sucks. It sucks the life out of every swell that tries to roar in the North Pacific. What that means to us in California is beautiful weather and perfect surf conditions, just no surf. At least not in SoCal, spots like Ocean Beach in San Francisco have had banner years, super clean and manageable to most. La Nina is not only pissing in my Cheerios, the big wave bros who crave Mavericks are predicting the cash cow of a contest—the Mavericks Surf Contest—won’t run this year…check this article for some good quotes from Jeff Clark, Grant Washburn, etc…

Rusty Long on the lone major swell Mavericks has seen this season. Photo: Jack English

Read entire article at www.sfgate.com

“I have a few friends who don’t like big waves anyway and they are saying, ‘Man, this is a great year,’ ” said Grant Washburn, 41, another San Francisco Maverick’s invitee.

Contest director Jeff Clark, who was the first to surf Maverick’s 34 years ago, agreed that it is fun to surf 2-foot breaks in Hawaii-style weather. But he said a Maverick’s surfer can only do that for so long before craving something that makes him nervous.

“Those who have saltwater in their veins want to be tested,” said Clark, 51, who owns the Maverick’s Surf Shop and can see the famous Pillar Point break from his living room.

The stakes are high - the Maverick’s winner will get $150,000, the largest prize in big-wave surfing competition history - if only the monotonous drumbeat of beach weather would cease.

“You start realizing that this is almost the end of the year, and it might be a long time before you’ll get big waves again,” Washburn said. “It’s not over yet, but there have never been this few days of big waves at Maverick’s.”