‘The Titans of Mavericks’, ‘The Committee 5’, ‘the world’s premiere, high adrenaline, big-wave surfing event’—it all sounds a little over the top, doesn’t it? When it comes to Red Bull’s approach to action sports, they have a tendency to gravitate towards the dramatic and Hollywood-esque. Captivating visuals combined with inspiring music and hyperbolical statements has become something of a trademark for them. The problem with applying this kind of marketing strategy to a surfing event is that it has the potential to be a little underwhelming. Luckily for them, despite a lumpy and smaller than predicted swell, today’s contest at Mavericks still had enough enthralling moments to keep us entertained. Here were some of the best:
Longtime Mavericks charger Ken ‘Skindog’ Collins went down hard on a solid one in his heat and suffered a burst eardrum and massive hold-down to boot. Interestingly, he still finished the heat in second place despite missing the last twenty minutes, but chose to sit the rest of the event out. In a post-heat interview, he gave everybody a serious reminder of just how heavy the place is, describing how he had to inflate his safety vest underwater in order to make it back to the top. ‘If I didn’t have that,’ he admitted, ‘I would’ve been in some trouble.’
Mark Healey’s feet-first free fall to two wave hold-down was quite the spectacle, too. Swinging late under the boil, the Hawaiian madman and El Nino superstar barely got to his feet before he was pin-dropping into the gullet of a particularly grotesque-looking Mavericks number. Amidst an already dramatic heat (the same one that took down Skindog), we didn’t find out until afterwards that Healey had copped a lung-buster of a hold-down after the wipeout, wearing two waves on the head before he could make it to the surface. Still, his comfort levels in the juicy stuff were on full display today, and he looked at ease as he picked off lefts, rights and some serious late takeoffs to make it to the semis.
Speaking of late takeoffs, Greg Long’s dramatic elevator drop in his round one heat was something else, and earned him ten grand for the Boldest Drop Award. Paddling in late under the ledge of a massive set wave, the man who nearly lost his life at Cortes Bank freefell out of the sky along with all ten feet of his board and somehow managed to stick a stylish landing halfway down the face before riding the thing into the channel. One of the stand-out performers of the day, Long finished third overall after a slow, slightly anti-climactic final, before paddling into an absolute monster seconds after the hooter sounded to prove beyond doubt that he is one of the world’s best big-wave riders.
Emerging Californian big-wave surfer Nic Lamb survived one of the beatings of the day to edge out local charger and event alternate Travis Payne for the win. After wiping out on the first wave of a hefty set in his semi, the twenty-six year old wore four more waves on the head and got washed through to the inside before the water safety team could even get near him. It was exhausting enough to watch, let alone live through, but somehow he managed to shake it off and come out swinging in the final with another huge wave that he rode from deep inside the takeoff zone all the way to the channel. Combined with a couple of solid back-ups, the score was enough to secure the Santa Cruz local the win over the other up-and-comer in the field, Travis Payne, who made the most of his call up into the event after Shane Dorian withdrew.
Replay the whole event here.
