Nic Lamb is new money.
The Santa Cruz native likely looked the part when he stepped into the Titans of Mavericks awards ceremony Friday night in a slick and stylish tailored suit. Hours earlier, before he’d won $30,000, he’d looked new school when he paired style and serious chutzpah to claim the biggest victory of his big wave surfing career so far.
Bedecked in lime green Neoprene, Lamb stood out as the best of the 24 world-class big wave hunters invited to take on 20- to 35-foot waves in the first Titans of Maverick’s surf contest. Now it appears he, runner-up Travis Payne of Pacifica and even the contest itself represent a changing of the guard in big wave surfing.
“I’m so stoked Nic won. It’s kind of the younger generation coming up,” Payne, 31, said. “We grew up here surfing together, me, him and my cousin Colin (Dwyer, also a contestant) surfing together.”
It’s not just about age, it’s about attitude. Those three are among the youngest in the contest, but they aren’t necessarily the least experienced. They have been paddling through the icy waters out past the jagged rocks since they were teenagers. Still, with the contest and the break gaining in popularity, it has only been within the last couple years that either received a coveted invitation.
After spending a few years on the alternate list, Lamb finally reached the main draw in 2014. Payne, meanwhile, got into the contest for the first time this year as an alternate after Shane Dorian of Hawaii dropped out late Thursday citing back pain.
Neither would allow himself to squander the opportunity.
Even after he had a wipeout that felt “like Niagra Falls meets Mount Everest” in the semifinal, Lamb kept pushing his limits.
“This is what I train for,” said Lamb, who now lives in Southern California. “I train to stay ready, not to get ready.”
Payne, meanwhile, said he was just fighting to impress organizers enough to convince them they should invite him back next year.
“Today was a day not to be cautious,” he said. “I was kind of going for it, actually.”
Meanwhile, the organizers were taking the novel approach of trying to impress the surfers, their TV viewers and hardly anyone else.
Cartel Management unapologetically kept an arm’s reach from the swarms of fans and media who usually descend on the event and letting them fend for themselves.
It ruffled some feathers, to be sure. Yet Cartel founder Griffin Guess stressed the importance of keeping a laser focus on the surfers’ interests the first time around — including paying for most of the $120,000 prize purse out of his own pocket. If the organizers did that, he said, the contest could eventually grow into something much grander and much more profitable. One idea he broached for far down the road is to pair the contest with concerts and turn it into a three-day festival.
In that case, new school could mean new money. Santa Cruz surfer Darryl “Flea” Virostko is among those that hope so.
Perhaps only Maverick’s pioneer Jeff Clark symbolizes the surf spot’s old guard better than Virostko, a Santa Cruz surfer who won the first three contests held there. Still, even Virostko can see that the contest and the sport could benefit from a new perspective. And if Guess’s unusual tactics can shake big wave surfing’s old school attitudes about how to do things, he’s all for it.
Now a member of the Titans of Maverick’s Committee 5, he noted that like Lamb, he also took home $30,000 for winning a Maverick’s contest — way back in 2000. In other words, in a world in which even fringe athletes like professional bowlers can make more than $100,000 a season, it’s appalling that people who put their lives on the line for entertainment walk away with less than a third as much.
“It’s cool, I’m glad what’s happening is happening,” he said. “We’ve all been pushing the ball, now it’s the young guys’ time to push it. From this point on, we’re not going down. We’re only going up.”
New money, new attitude. Next up for the sport, a new direction.
Contact Julie Jag at 831-706-3257.
