Conditions must be just right for the Pretty Big Wave World Tour.
In between watching stunning Pipeline heats, you have no doubt had your eyes glued to swell forecasts, especially if you live in California. Oh there is so much swell coming, such large swell that the National Weather Service took the unprecedented step of warning potential ocean goers of “certain death” if they dared touched toesies to the sand in Sonoma and Monterey counties up by San Francisco.
Of course we know that California’s iconic big wave is up there too, Mavericks, catching all that swell. Forming all that swell into towering waves.
Surfline, the World Surf League’s official wave forecasting website, describes the morning thusly:
It’s absolutely macking today! XXL WNW swell has filled in overnight and has good exposures in the 2x-3x overhead real, while standouts see 3x-4x overhead surf and deepwater magnets go into the 5x-6x OH realm with a few bigger bombs as well. Winds are light SE now, allowing for clean conditions although the ocean is still a little mixed up from last night’s weather. Tide is full but dropping to a 1.4′ LOW at 1PM. Be very careful and use good judgement, there is tremendous power out there!
And the World Surf League did use judgement, last week while that swell was getting built, and called the Mavericks Big Wave World Tour event off for Monday and Tuesday preemptively.
Today, with too many big waves on the horizon, the event was cancelled for the rest of the week and let us turn to the San Francisco Chronicle for more:
The Mavericks surf contest — which had already been delayed a couple times in the past few days — has been postponed for at least another week.
“We will not be running the Mavericks Challenge this week and will wait for more optimum conditions,” World Surf League Big Wave Tour Commissioner Mike Parsons said in a statement Sunday afternoon. “The wind is good and conditions will be clean, but the swell will be dropping through the day on Thursday and we won’t have the consistency we need to run an excellent event.”
The surf near Half Moon Bay is expected to be the biggest of the year Monday — waves may reach 50 feet — and it was thought at one point that Tuesday might be an option, but it was ruled out on Saturday for safety reasons.
A quick perusal of Surfline’s Mavericks webcam shows many big waves. I am not a big wave surfer so cannot speak to their quality but maybe you can?
The WSL is like a neutered house cat.
Chas, What’s that straight line in the sky above the wave used on this article?
chemtrail
Raised eyebrows.
No wonder why the WSL sponsors Micholob Ultra
More like Ultra-mediocre
at the very least send the womens heat out, to determine if it’s too big or not.
Wsl should hire you now that the goat robbed you of your will to live
Oh, and I just saw some epic tow-in rides. Clean 40 foot faces. With the dropping tide, peaking WNW swell, and lighter winds, it will get even better. What more do you want? The paddlers will come out and there will be some historic rides.
Mavericks is clean and perfect right now. Best day of the year. The WSL BLEW IT. They look really, really bad (and chickeny) right now.
If they’re don’t want to run a contest on the best day of the year, then what gives?
Theres mail that the guys who surfed jaws are still having the water pumped out of them.
So not too keen right now, maybe later.
Best day in 10 years at jaws?!
I ,much like Eddie, would go.
I would go. to the carpark and look at it from the cliff and complain of an old footballing injury that flares up from time to time. (more fat wanker than Eddie in this approach)
Problem is Joey turps can’t be in two places at once and without him who the fuck cares?
If Joey drank a bottle of Holy Spirits ………… it is possible he could defy the laws of physics ? Smoking Pipe on the Half Moon …….
He only drinks out of organic and locally sourced plastic
As long as he gets On The Turps .
Got to be careful cutting the oranges especially if you’re playing at Left Right Out ?