Californian wins Mavericks big wave surf contest

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Californian wins Mavericks big wave surf contest
By JASON DEAREN, Associated Press Writer
January 12, 2008

HALF MOON BAY, Calif (AP) -- A 24-year-old California surfer topped a daredevil contest Saturday that had competitors riding waves more than four stories tall.

Greg Long of San Clemente was among two dozen elite surfers who took part in the Mavericks Surf Contest -- considered the Super Bowl of big-wave competitions -- in Half Moon Bay, about 20 miles south of San Francisco.

After the contest was whittled down to six finalists, Long was crowned the winner. Grant "Twiggy" Baker of South Africa was second, and Jamie Sterling of Hawaii third. Baker won the event in 2006, the last time it was held.

On his first wave in the final heat of the competition, Long barely held his balance on his 9-foot, 6-inch royal blue surfboard. He took a late drop down the towering 40-foot wave before landing on the bottom and carving a fast turn to dodge a wall of whitewater crashing behind him.

He said he felt nearly weightless as he fell down the face of the wave, and thought, "I'm either going down hard or going to get a good one. Luckily it was the latter of the two."

Before the last wave, Long and his five fellow finalists agreed to split the $75,000 pursue, which would've been divvied up with the winner taking home $30,000 and the other finalists sharing the rest.

The original 24 entrants were broken into four groups of six surfers who competed in 45-minute heats during which each rider caught up to 10 waves. They were whisked out on jet skis to conquer the giant swells about a half-mile offshore.

Surfers were judged on their best two waves, and the top three scorers in each heat advanced to the semifinals.

Contest organizer Jeff Clark, who is credited with "discovering" Mavericks in 1975 and being the only person to surf there for the next 15 years, buzzed around near the competitors on a jet ski.

"The waves are good. The surfers are happy," Clark said from his jet ski. "That's the best part, the surfers are happy,"

Half Moon Bay surfer Ion Banner walked in from the first heat with a big smile across his face. He had air-dropped down a couple of waves during his heat -- meaning the wave was so steep he and his board lost contact with the water.

"I somersaulted down a couple of them," Banner said.

Worried about traffic in the small coastal town, organizers and local officials asked fans to watch the contest on the Web or a live broadcast at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

About 800 people were at the ballpark watching the big wave surfers, oohing and awing as they flew down the waves.

Jacob Towery of Palo Alto started surfing a couple of years ago and figured he could learn something from the big-wave riders, while avoiding large crowds at the beach.

"I think it's awesome," he said. "It's amazing. Huge waves, their cool moves and how they charge the waves."

Closer to the action in Half Moon Bay, thousands of spectators came out. Some perched on cliffs to watch the surfers through binoculars, while others gathered in front of a big screen on the beach.

The crowd groaned when Evan Slater, known for his spectacular wipeouts at Mavericks, took off late on a massive swell and fell through the air to the bottom of the wave. He was sucked back up into the churning mass of whitewater and tossed around. He surfaced quickly and was back in the lineup in seconds.

At least 30,000 people had logged onto the event's webcast, and during the second heat 1,000 new users per minute were logging on, contest organizers said.

Each winter, when huge, storm-generated swells batter the Northern California coast, the world's top big-wave riders are put on notice for Mavericks, which was first held in 1999. Organizers wait for ideal conditions before giving invitees little more than 24 hours to travel from wherever they are in the world to Half Moon Bay.

Associated Press Writer Ron Harris contributed to this report.

On the Net:

http://www.maverickssurf.com

http://www.stormsurf.com/