Big Wave Surfing: Mavericks Will Be Held Friday

Santa Cruz Sentinel ^

[nickcarraway]

The Body Glove Mavericks Invitational big wave surf contest will be held Friday after all.

Maverick's pioneer Jeff Clark, the man who had the final say as to whether the big wave surf contest will be run this week at the break a mile from the Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay, gave the event the go-ahead Wednesday afternoon.

"With this big of a swell coming at us, we really don't want to miss it," Clark told the Sentinel. "Swells of this size don't come along every year. We haven't seen one for two years. So we're taking advantage of it. We're lucky the weather has come together to a place where we can have the contest. It's dangerous enough out there."

The 24 invited contestants -- including eight from Santa Cruz -- and a handful of alternates were warned Tuesday morning that the contest might be upcoming. Clark was expected to give it the green light early Wednesday morning for a Friday contest. But Clark said a growing south wind caused by low pressure system over the Central Coast caused him to delay his decision.

[vbmoneyspender]

Universal Sports will be broadcasting it live starting at 8:30 am PST tomorrow.

Mavericks Invitational

[BillyBonebrake]

Thanks for the update Nick. Lets hope that whatever system is pushing this swell can bring some wet weather for the west.

[doorgunner69]

Big swell hitting Hawaii now, could be the same swells expected at Mavericks.

[SW6906]

Wanna see something cool? Check out this world wind map. Click, drag and drop to rotate. Zoom in by holding control and rolling your mouse wheel. Click on "earth" in the lower left corner for settings. The higher the hPa, the lower the altitude. Sfc is for surface. Control lets you go into the future or into the past. You can see from the winds what the weather is going to do.

Here's a better one for the continental USA>

[Disambiguator]

If it swells, ride it.

[Mike Darancette]

Surf's Up!