Big-wave surfing event targeted for Monday
Organizers of the Mavericks big-wave surf contest have alerted all competitors to the possibility of running the event as soon as Monday.
A significant swell is expected to hit the Northern California coast, and the World Surf League is due to make an announcement Friday morning after checking the latest surf and weather forecasts.
“It’s looking really solid,” said Brian Overfelt, who owns the Old Princeton Landing, long a hangout for Mavericks surfers, and serves as the contest’s event manager for community interests. “They’re leaving it open, in case Tuesday looks better or the swell diminishes. But they’re telling everybody to be ready to go on Monday..”
The all-day contest would begin at 8 a.m. at the fabled spot off Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay. It’s unlikely that conditions will be ideal, at least by Mavericks standards, but the contest’s new regime has brought a tone of immediacy. With a contest window lasting only through the end of February, “We don’t like to wait around, hoping for that all-time day, when it might never come,” said WSL executive Peter Mel. “At all of our events, we like to make the call when the first good-looking day comes along.”
This marks a refreshing change from Cartel Management, the previous ownership group, which staged only one contest (2016) during its threeyear run and was largely unprepared due to a lack of sponsorship and proper infrastructure. Cartel eventually filed for bankruptcy and the World Surf League, which operates a Big Wave World Tour featuring winter stops at Mavericks, Hawaii and Portugal, purchased the rights for $525,000.
Whenever the contest is held, women will get their first-ever shot at surfing the Mavericks contest. They have been granted a one-hour, six-woman heat at a time deemed best to fit into the men’s event. With marginal conditions expected over the next few days, the women have turned their focus to Maui — the famed “Jaws” break (Peahi) on the island’s north shore. San Francisco’s Bianca Valenti, a Mavericks regular who has spearheaded the women’s big-wave surf movement, flew to Maui on Thursday for what is expected to be a huge, challenging swell.
By Monday, a significant west-northwest swell is due to peak at Mavericks. The forecast calls for wave faces in the 20-foot range along the coast, but Mavericks, due to its open-ocean location more than a quarter-mile offshore, tends to produce larger surf. The WSL traditionally demands at least 30-foot faces for its big-wave events.
Tides could be an issue. Mavericks is at its best, both in power and consistency, at a low tide — which will not arrive until late Monday afternoon. A 6.3-foot high tide, peaking around 9 a.m., is likely to slow down the action. The forecast calls for a mostly cloudy day with westsouthwest winds (also not ideal) at 5-10 mph.
As spectators have discovered in recent years, there is no way to witness this event in person. The beach and bluffs will be closed, as well as the road leading out to Pillar Point, leaving the WSL’s webcast (worldsurfleague.com) as the only option. There will be no big-screen outdoor festival, as there was in past years, but viewing locations have been established in the Princeton Harbor area (Old Princeton Landing, Jeff Clark’s surf shop and the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co.), and Half Moon Bay (Sacrilege, It’s Italia and Cameron’s).