Photo Highlights from the 2007 2008 Mavericks Surf Contest

Larger photos here on the Flickr

Nobody's saying that these were Maverick's biggest waves ever. But they sure were pretty. And this year's event occurred on a weekend day with excellent weather after the first couple of heats

Here's what the occasional lull looked like before the sun came out.

The inherent dangers of this break were minimized by a capable safety team ready to pull any surfer away from the dangerous rocks.

Behavior that might lead to a parking lot brawl in Oahu doesn't seem to be a problem at Maverick's. How congenial these competitive people are.

There was monstrous interest from the international press

Here's the mise-en-scene. Surfer's on the left, spectators and the Air Force radar station to the right.

We sure like the high-level competitors and the pretty waves.

The bay area salutes these world-class big wave surfers:

Matt Ambrose, Grant "Twiggy" Baker, Ion Banner, Ross Clark-Jones, Kenny Collins, Randy Cone, Danilo Couto, Shane Desmond, Brock Little, Greg Long, Josh Loya, Garrett McNamara, Peter Mel, Shawn Rhodes, Ryan Seelbach, Evan Slater, Tyler Smith, Russell Smith, Jamie Sterling, Anthony Tashnick, Darryl "Flea" Virostko, Grant Washburn, John Whittle and Zach Wormhoudt

We'd also like to thank Jennifer Mangiacapre and Bo Morris from SnL Communications for making sure the event went swimmingly. NIMBY people will always find something to complain about, but all concerned worked well together this year.

It was a great day. See you next year!