Mavericks Surf Contest delivers
Earlier this month Jeff Clark made the call and the chosen few had 24 hours to reach Half Moon Bay, California, to contest one of the leading big-wave, paddle-in competitions in the calendar: Mavericks Surf Contest 2007/2008.
Coming out on top was Greg Long, a Calif. native, and on the way to victory recorded an unprecendented perfect 10 ride. Prior to the final showdown and responding to flat water, the six finalists agreed to split the winnings equally, regardless of outcome.
Other pro sports take note if ever they want to attract young kids to their field of play. This agreement held despite a set arriving out of nowhere, enabling Long to clinch the title.
The Jay Moriarity award went to Jamie Sterling for his overall passion for big-wave surfing. The Clif Bar Green Room Award went to Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker for the biggest, deepest barrel of the day, whilst champion Greg Long also picked up a couple of momentos including a Jeff Clark surfboard.
Mavericks is infamous for being a cold and unforgiving spot, making it one of the more challenging locations for big-wave surfers to test their mettle.
Contest Director Jeff Clark made the spot his own by surfing it for the first time in 1975 and being the only person to consistently go back for the next 15 years before its notoriety spread among the big-wave community at the beginning of the 90’s, coinciding with the first published photo in Surfer.
The world’s attention arrived along with Mark Foo, Ken Bradshaw and Brock Little amongst others in 1994, although it turned into one of the saddest days for Clark and Mavericks when Foo lost his life.
Since then Clark has quietly been putting Mavericks on the map, culminating in the contest that now runs annually attracting the big names and increasingly bigger audiences.
Thousands appeared at Pillar Point this year, whilst more than 250,000 viewed the live webcast on Myspace.com and 1,000 people watched at a big screen party at AT&T Park in San Fran. Not bad for a man alone more than 30 years ago.
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