( – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Once a year, IF the weather conditions are just right, the best surfers in the world are on 48 hour standby to be called to a spot off the coast just to the south of San Francisco, in the middle of winter. That area is called Pillar Point, and it’s a nondescript area of cliffs with a little sand beach in Half Moon Bay, CA, which hold a great secret offshore and around the corner- MONSTER waves. There they will brave the icy cold waters, rocks, and literally the Biggest Surfable Waves in the World, to be towed out into the ocean on jetskis, past the rocks, and try to surf back in on waves up to 25 feet tall, without getting killed.
That’s Mavericks.
That time is now.
http://cbs5.com/sports/maveric…
You can try to watch a live stream of the contest online here, it’s cutting in and out on me.
http://www.ustream.tv/maverick…
Here’s a link to a photogallery of surfers and the waves, so you can get an idea of how large they are:
http://www.maverickssurf.com/b…
HIGH SURF WARNING ! SPECTATORS HAVE JUST BEEN INJURED, GET OFF THE BEACH NOW AND GET BACK FROM THE CLIFF EDGES ! per the twitter feed on the live stream site.
Remember, Mother Nature is not nice here in CA. Respect the ocean.
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…. even when it’s not tourist season, the access sucks, the launch site is very small, the waves dangerous, and you really can’t see anything hardly, even if you’re on a good vantage point on the cliffs.
Do check out the twitter feeds- yikes!
…is the way to go. I live close to HMB, but it’s much better staying home online. In addition to the high tide swamping onlookers, the broadcast team has almost been wiped off it’s scaffolding structure.
Wild and wooly beach break in addition to offshore monsters.
Author
Alex Martins is in first place for the 2nd semi final heat.
He lost his board earlier as the leash snapped, but he made it safe to shore. Alas his board was dark colored…. not readily apparent where it went.
The 2 commentary dudes on the scaffolding on the beach were just discussing which would be the better direction to bail off if waves took it out- forward, backward, or to the side ?
Great photo of this wave fiasco HERE at the sfgate.com
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…
Rogue or sneaker waves, which are sudden huge surges, are common on Pacific coast beaches, and are thought to have recently claimed the lives of two women hikers in separate incidents at Pt Reyes National Seashore. They just disappeared, in one case one dog companion out of 2 was subsequently found on the beach. NEVER go near the water without paying attention, even on a quiet day.
I must note that this is the first year the original founder of the event has not been participating because of legal wrangling.
Despite all the efforts to keep it quiet and not publicize it, the place was packed!
Lot of other beautiful oceanfront to explore near there. A bit cold and high surf for a dip though.
Author
they’re lucky they didn’t lose their child.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…
herding them out as the ambulance heads in
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…
these look like about 35 to 40 foot waves
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…
Author
Cris Bertish, who had the longest plane trip to get there (36 hours) was the winner of this year’s Mavericks Surf Contest.
Fortunately, there were no fatalities. More excellent pictures are here:
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_…
Learned a new vocabulary word “goofyfoot surfer” for a person who puts the right foot forward but is right handed.
As a person who is left legged but right handed, I had no idea there was a word for this for humans.