The World Surf League plans to put on a big wave surf contest at Maverick’s for both men and women, local and world famous, as early as this season. Whether that will happen is still up in the air.
The final loop in the sale of a five-year contest permit from Cartel Management, Inc., to the WSL as part of a bankruptcy proceeding was expected to be closed late Wednesday night at a meeting of the San Mateo Harbor District commissioners. If the commission voted to approve the transfer of the permit to WSL, the sale would become final. If it denied the transfer, the sale would be void.
But, in another tangle in the saga of Maverick’s, the legendary and ruthless break near Half Moon Bay, the commissioners voted to not vote on the transfer, further clouding the contest’s immediate future.
It is now up to the WSL to interpret whether the no vote is a vote of confidence or a vote of disapproval. The board indicated it doesn’t plan to revisit the transfer.
“We always want to go into the communities where we have tour events and be respectful,” Jonathan Marshall, a lawyer for WSL, said in a statement to the commission. “If we come in here and find opposition from the harbor commission, it would cause us to have pause because we don’t want to be places where people don’t want us.”
Sabrina Brennan, one of the commissioners who has been the most outspoken about the permitting process, said she hopes the WSL will move forward with its plans.
“I support the event happening this season and I think it’s great that there’s an organization with experience that’s stepped forward that wants to put on an event so athletes can compete,” she said at the meeting. “I support that whole-heartedly, but I still don’t support this permit, which I feel was poorly written. … So, I can’t vote to support a permit I never supported. I can’t do that. I feel that a multi-season permit is big mistake.”
Others, including Brian Overfelt and Cassandra and Jeff Clark, who together make up Mavericks Invitational, which brought in Cartel Management in 2015 to produce the event, opposed the transfer. All three asserted Mavericks Invitational’s claim that it actually holds the permit.
“We actually drank Cartel’s Kool-Aid,” Jeff Clark, one of the pioneers of the break and the contest held there, said. “We were there fighting for them to get this sustained contest only to have them work behind the scenes and have them take it from us.”
A judge in a bankruptcy court in Los Angeles did not address the permit ownership last Friday when she approved the sale of Titans of Mavericks assets, primarily the permits, to the WSL for $525,000 as part of Cartel’s chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Cartel created Titans of Mavericks, LLC, to run the contest just before the 2016-2017 season. It declared bankruptcy in February — in the middle of the big wave season — and was found to owe nearly $3 million.
Stewart Schmella, a lawyer for Siegler Holdings, one of Cartel’s largest creditors, saw the commission’s decision differently. He said in an email that by not voting, the commission was siding with Mavericks Invitational.
“The District has effectively prevented Cartel’s legitimate creditors from recovering a dime from Cartel,” he wrote Thursday. “The District has effectively prevented Segler Holdings from recovering any portion of the life savings of its members. Shame on the District.”
Grant Washburn of San Francisco, a longtime Mavericks contest competitor, said he’d rather see no one get the permit than to give Cartel nearly 100 times what it paid the harbor district for what amounts to a use permit, one of numerous permits required by various entities, including the Coast Guard, to produce the contest.
“We all love the ocean. We want the biggest day, the best day. For them to do what they did I think is the ultimate crime,” Washburn said of Cartel. “And for anybody to give them half a million dollars to take that position, that’s hard to stomach.
Washburn noted that the contest has seen plenty of drama since the first one took place in 1999.
“It’s like the ring in ‘The Lord of the Rings,” he added. “It’s like, whoever gets it becomes this big, magical … nightmare.”
A call and an email to the WSL were not returned Thursday. An email to Cartel Management also was not returned.
Contact Julie Jag at 831-706-3257.
