Every winter, at the Maverick’s surf break near Half Moon Bay and along the West Coast, the ocean undergoes a process called upwelling. Cold water rises up from the depths to replace warmer surface water that wind has blown out to sea.
This winter, the ocean won’t be the only thing turning over.
All but two of the 24 invitees to the Titans of Mavericks big wave surf contest have been announced, revealed one by one via the contest’s social media accounts the over the weekend. And many longtime competitors have, in a manner of speaking, been given the cold shoulder for the prestigious big wave event that can be held anytime between Nov. 1 and March 31.
Only the 12 semifinalist from February’s inaugural contest were safe, according to Maverick’s pioneer Jeff Clark. Clark is on the Committee 5, which is tasked with selecting the invitees, alternates and wild cards.
“I just don’t want to be the guy that’s a tenured surfer, so to speak. We don’t have that,” Clark said Tuesday. “We want to keep this event rewarding the most committed and highest performing (surfers) and keep it at the highest level of competition. We have the waves that can do that.”
Few of the casualties hailed from Santa Cruz County, which still has the most representatives with six. They include Nic Lamb, who won the inaugural Titans title in February, and Anthony Tashnick, the 2005 Maverick’s champion. The other local invitees are Tyler Fox of Aptos, rookie Patrick Shaughnessy of Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz veterans Ken Collins and Zach Wormhoudt.
With the exclusion of longtime Maverick’s staple Grant Washburn of San Francisco from this year’s list of invitees, Wormhoudt becomes the only surfer to have been invited to every iteration of the contest held at the Maverick’s surf break near Half Moon Bay since the initial Quiksilver Men Who Ride Mountains event in 1999.
“They’re pretty quick to flip the old guard with the new guard,” Collins said. “You can really see that.”
When it took over organizing the contest in 2015, Cartel Management, Inc. created the Committee 5, also known as the C5, and tasked it creating the contest’s guest list. Earlier this year, Clark, Ion Banner, Shaun Rhodes, Matt Ambrose and three-time champion Darryl “Flea” Virostko, individually and collectively evaluated the dedication and skills of potential invitees. After some discussion, the C5 submitted their selections for the 12 non-automatic invitees via secret ballot.
“Surfers know, if they don’t make it out of their first heat, chances are they might sit out a year,” Clark said. “It’s extra incentive, but also, if you don’t make it out, it allows us to bring in guys and keep the contest fresh.”
Collins said this year’s list, which includes at least five new invitees, shows the committee “is doing their homework and acknowledging” the efforts of newcomers to break into the contestant ranks.
“That’s the difference. A lot of guys coming in don’t know that much about Maverick’s on a daily basis,” Collins said. “If you go hard no matter what, eventually that’s going to catch up with you, too. You need to know what waves are make-able and what waves aren’t make-able. And that comes with the relationship and years of being out there.”
Santa Cruz’s Ryan Augenstein and Shane Desmond rank among this season’s casualties.
Desmond, who placed second in 2010 in arguably the biggest contest conditions on record, isn’t on any of the contest’s three rosters of potential surfers. Meanwhile Augenstein — who has been competing at Maverick’s since 2010 and placed third in 2014 — was named the event’s sixth alternate, just ahead of Maverick’s contest newcomer Kyle Thiermann, also of Santa Cruz.
Two-time champion Grant “Twiggy” Baker was the first surfer to receive an invitation, a gesture that perhaps served as an olive branch. The South African was banned last year after he tried to rally support around issuing an invitation to 2014 champion Peter Mel of Santa Cruz. Mel is the commissioner of the World Surf League’s Big Wave Tour and the C5 deemed that inviting Mel would create a conflict of interest.
Lamb was the 22nd and final surfer to be issued an outright invitation. Two spots remain open and may be filled by an alternate or one of eight wild cards, five of whom hail from Hawaii. The other three come from San Francisco, Nicaragua and England.
Both Baker and Lamb, as well as many of the other invitees, are expected to be at Maverick’s Beach on Friday for the Titans of Mavericks opening ceremony and paddle-out, which is open to the public.
The ceremony may be a bit presumptive however. Before it can hold the contest, Cartel must secure a Coastal Development Permit from the California Coastal Commission. The group has submitted its proposal, which would allow it to close off Maverick’s Beach, the nearby parking lot and a trail between the two. The permit is expected to be reviewed by the CCC during its Nov. 2-4 meeting.
For a complete list of invitees, alternates and wild cards, visit this article at santacruzsentinel.com/sports.
