Mavericks Big Wave Competition Gets Underway

Arugh, one day I'll make it out there to watch...but today, thank goodness for live feeds from the internet. The wonder of technology. It look sooo cool out there, I wish I could go...

Finals start at about 1:30 for any of you who happen to read this before then LoL the waves look. HUGE
http://www.ktvu.com/news/6784210/detail.html#

Mavericks Big Wave Competition Gets Underway
POSTED: 7:29 am PST February 6, 2006
UPDATED: 8:24 am PST February 7, 2006

HALF MOON BAY -- Fresh off one day's notice, 24 of the world's top surfers began the annual Mavericks ride-to-survive contest early Tuesday.

Back in action at the rugged confluence of storm-driven swells and jutting sea floor are the defending champion, Anthony Tashnick, and three-time winner Darryl "Flea" Virostko. Other contestants include Eraldo Gueiros and Danilo Couto, both of Brazil, and Ryan Seelbach, of San Francisco.

The hardscrabble Santa Cruz contingent usually fares well, having logged more practice time at Mavericks than others. They're also accustomed to the frigid waters and occasional sharks that Mavericks has to offer.

Santa Cruz is located about 60 miles south of Mavericks, and the contest offers the closest thing to glory for many locals who grew up surfing the smaller waves at Steamers Lane in their coastal tourist town.

Santa Cruz has produced the only champions the event has ever known in the four years it was held. And while the money is one thing, laying claim to being the boss of Mavericks for a year carries strong prestige as well.

"It's a culmination of your life of surfing when you turn and paddle in at Mavericks," said Jeff Clark, the man who discovered the quirky and powerful break in 1975.

Whether out of fear or respect for the waves, other surfers let him have it to himself and Clark surfed Mavericks alone for 15 years.

If riders time everything right, they'll survive a two-story drop onto the face of the world's most feared waves on the planet and ride away unscathed. Play it wrong, and Mavericks will dunk the best of them, and pin them on the shallow sea floor until they can muster the strength to surface.

Clark said that Mavericks' appeal comes from its accessibility. Surfers can paddle out, sit on the edge of the break in relative safety and admire a 40-foot wave even if they decide not to paddle into it.

During past contests, surfers have been bloodied and their boards snapped in half by the powerful churning waters. Experienced big wave surfer Mark Foo died surfing Mavericks in 1994.

"Every wave at Mavericks is a challenge," Clark said.

Mavericks is located one-half mile off the coast of Half Moon Bay, about 20 miles south of San Francisco.

On contest day, crowds of thousands form on the cliffs and shoreline, squinting through binoculars for a glimpse at surfers riding waves that are normally to be avoided by seafarers at all costs.

It is just one of several big wave hot spots around the globe ridden regularly by the sport's elite. Other well-known big wave breaks include Todos Santos, north of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Waimea Bay at Oahu's notorious north shore; Jaws at Maui's north shore; and Cortes Banks, a tow-in monster wave generating zone about 100 miles off the Southern California coast that boasts some of the largest waves ever ridden -- or attempted.

Copyright 2006 by KTVU.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.