Mavericks Goes Long

Last year South African Grant "Twiggy" Baker reigned supreme over the beasts of the reef, but his year he was unseated by the 24-year-old Long. The runner-up in the 2005 event, Long earned a perfect score in the finals to take home the giant $30,000 cardboard check. Actually, Long may have taken home the cardboard check, a $4,000 Reactor diamond-encrusted watch, and the respect of anybody with a pulse, but he and the other five finalists split the entire $75,000 in prize money equally. During the final round, Long said, "We were looking at each other and laughing at how amazing the day was. We all decided it wasn't about the money." Damn. A champion surfer and a nice guy. WTF!

Twiggy did podium again this year, taking second to Long and grabbing the Green Room Award for best tube riding on the day, an award Twiggy most likely earned for his double tube ride in the finals. Hawai'ian surfer Jamie Stirling nabbed third place.

It wasn't the biggest or best day of waves out at Mavericks, but there were enough monster slabs to get the job done. Most reasonable estimates put the waves at about 20-25 feet for the early heats, mammoth by ordinary surfing standards but nowhere near the scale of watery madness in the 2006 contest or the surreal 70-foot behemoths a few surfers braved last month. By the mid-afternoon finals, a few 40-foot "voodoo" sets were rolling in, allowing big wave stars like Long, Baker, and Grant Washburn to shred their stuff.

Overall the contest was handled very efficiently. Traffic was not nearly as bad as in 2006, the last time the contest was held, and there was very little littering or jackassiveness. However, despite repeated warnings from event announcer Chris Mauro and the well-intentioned efforts of volunteers, many fans ignored requests to stay off the sensitive and dangerous cliffs facing the break. "I can't see shit" was a common refrain heard during the course of the day, but such utterances mostly came from out-of-towners and newbies unfamiliar with the layout of Pillar Point. As locals know, the Jumbotron, the US Air Force radar installation on Pillar Point, and the $250-a-head tour boats are the only onsite places from which you can actually see the action.

The weather was a bit chilly and overcast in the morning but cleared out and warmed up nicely for the afternoon finals -- again, it was no 2006, but still pretty nice for a January day on the San Mateo coast. The crowd was estimated to be in the 40,000 to 50,000 range, but there were probably no more than 10,000 people on the beach and cliffs at any given time. Supposedly, 600 more fans paid $25 a head to watch the event on TV screens in the Field Lounge of AT&T Park.

Whether you agree with the commercialization of Mavericks or not, the enormity of the event is beyond debate. Once you witness the scale of the waves and the skill of the surfers, you cannot deny the allure of this contest. The waves are so massive, they captivate with their absurdity. And when you see surfers getting sucked up the face and over the lip of a 25-foot monster, see them straining and paddling with all their incredible strength to catch a wave or avoid one, see them braving huge walls of water, dropping in, cutting back, and even wiping out in a huge explosion of white foam and terrifying power, you get it. You know why the surfers risk their lives in cold and dangerous water and why surf fans and laypeople alike drive through horrendous traffic, tromp through mud, and suffer the elements just to be part of the scene. And bra', what a scene.

Online, at the vendor booths and the surf shops, and at AT&T park, Mavericks is just business, but out in the water, it is pure sport, pure adrenaline, pure courage, pure spectacle -- whether you can see it from the beach or not.

Photo credits: SFist Chris