Jan 12, 2008 9:13 pm US/Pacific
SoCal Surfer Wins Mavericks Big Wave Competition
HALF MOON BAY (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
After a grueling day of sun, swells and wipeouts, a 24-year-old Southern California surfer emerged as the champion of the daredevil Mavericks Surf Contest Saturday that had competitors riding waves more than four stories tall.
Greg Long of San Clemente captured first plave after out-surfing 23 other elite competitors who took part in this year's event which is considered the Super Bowl of big-wave competitions in Half Moon Bay, along the Peninsula about 20 miles south of San Francisco.
After the contest was whittled down to six finalists, Long was crowned the winner, with Grant "Twiggy" Baker of South Africa coming in second and Jamie Sterling of Hawaii landing third. Baker won the event in 2006, the last time it was held.
Long said he has surfed big waves everywhere from South Africa to Chile, as well as up and down the Pacific coastline.
But Long and other surfers said challenging wave faces on some of the bigger sets Saturday at Mavericks reached 40 to 50 feet.
On his first wave in the final heat of the Mavericks competition, Long barely held his balance as he freefell down a towering wave. Long maintained his balance by using his "tippy toes" to keep contact with his 9-foot, 6-inch royal blue big wave "gun" surfboard and was able to land on the wave's bottom, carve a fast turn and dodge the massive 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 announcers said surfers faced difficult conditions, but local surfboard shaper and competitor Randy Cone said the direction of the swell didn't matter.
"If you wipe out, you are going to get slammed," Cone said during the competition.
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, 38, 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 webcast or a live broadcast at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
At least 48,000 viewers logged on for the event's live webcast here on CBS5.com.
About 800 people were at the ballpark watching the big wave surfers, oohing and awing as they flew down the waves.
Jacob Towery, 28, 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 television on the beach.
The crowds that crammed onto the tiny beach to watch the surfers were twice as big as the ones that came out to view the 2006 competition,
contest spokeswoman Jennifer Mangiacapre said. There was no contest last year due to poor weather conditions and a lack of sizable swells.
The beach crowd groaned when when Southern California surfer 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.
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.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
