The window for the Maverick’s surf contest slammed shut Sunday. For the third straight season, no event was held at the big wave surf break.
The end of the season, which started in November, brought a mixture of relief and disappointment to many of those who paddle through the cold waters and into waves as big as apartment buildings at the reef break located north of Half Moon Bay.
“It’s kind of a bummer,” said Patrick Shaughnessy of Scotts Valley. “In terms of, I definitely try to surf more often and stay in shape (during the contest period), so it’s kind of a relief. But, it would have been fun to have it happen.”
Shaughnessy was one of the 24 men invited to surf the Mavericks Challenge, a World Surf League Big Wave Tour event. Others from the Santa Cruz included defending champion Nic Lamb, who won it in 2016, as well as Peter Mel and Anthony Tashnick, both of whom are also Maverick’s champions. For the first time, the contest was also going to feature a women’s contest, and Santa Cruz’s Jamilah Star and Sarah Gerhardt were among the 10 invitees.
Surfers had high hopes for this year’s contest. Part of those expectations stemmed from the contest resting in the hands of the WSL, which had wrested it from Cartel Management after that contest organizer declared bankruptcy. The WSL has plenty of experience running contests, having produced surfing’s World Tour, and was going to offer equal prize money to the men and the women. Compounding the high hopes for this year’s events were exciting wave forecasts and an epic swell that rolled through on Dec. 17-18.
The WSL considered holding the event on Dec. 17, but ultimately opted to hold off when south winds threatened to make the event too dangerous. Flocks of surfers and hundreds of spectators went anyway, and there were reports that it was the best Maverick’s day in decades.
“There was a day in December that was good in hindsight, but I wouldn’t have wanted to make that call,” Shaughnessy said. “In hindsight it was good, but as it was forecast, it was sketchy.”
The day produced no fewer than 10 submissions for the WSL Ride of the Year. Shaughnessy added, however, that he only caught two waves in about eight hours.
“It was tricky for sure,” he said.
In an interview with the Sentinel prior to the opening ceremony for the Mavericks Challenge, Big Wave Tour commissioner Mike Parsons foresaw difficulties in picking the right day. He said conditions would have to hold up for a minimum of eight hours to fit in the three women’s heats in addition to the seven men’s.
“It puts the event in a tighter time slot now to do something in one day,” he said. “It’s also challenging for making the call because we don’t have much wiggle room. If it’s a little too high tide or it’s a little too windy or we need to wait an hour for fog — there’s a lot of factors that are worrisome for sure.”
When the WSL announced it would pass on the December swell, Parsons said he expected to have plenty more opportunities with three more months left in the season. Then the sea turned flat.
“They let one good day go by in December and figured it’s a shoo-in for January and February,” Shaughessy said, “and it wasn’t.”
Grant Washburn, a multi-time Maverick’s contest invitee who documents every swell that comes into the break, told the San Francisco Chronicle that this year’s was “the worst February in 28 years for Mavericks.”
“It’s not even close, by my records,” Washburn told The Chronicle. “January was not much better. There hasn’t been anything even remotely contest-worthy in almost three months.”
Parsons finally issued a press release in mid-March noting the WSL was keeping an eye on swells expected to arrive March 19-26, but they never materialized.
Without Mavericks out, Grant “Twiggy” Baker — a two-time Maverick’s champion — and Keala Kennelly were named the WSL Big Wave Tour champions due to their results at the Nazare Challenge in Portugal and/or the Jaws Challenge at Pe’ahi in Hawaii.
“Well it looks like we’ll have to wait one more year for the Mavericks big wave challenge,” Kennelly wrote on Twitter. “Me and my crew… will be ready.”
The 2019-20 Mavericks Challenge window will run from Nov. 1 to March 31, according to the WSL website.
Big Wave Tour
Final Standings
Men
1. Grant Baker, South Africa
2. Billy Kemper, Hawaii
T3. Kai Lenny, Hawaii
T3. Lucas Chianca, Brazil.
Also
T16. Nic Lamb, Santa Cruz
Women
1. Keala Kennelly, Hawaii
2. Andrea Moller, Brazil
3. Emily Erickson, Hawaii
Also
T7. Jamilah Star, Santa Cruz
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