Surf ers and fans! Mavericks' kicks off at 8AM, PST on Saturday!

[TomInTib]

If you cannot be there, you can watch it here:

http://www.myspace.com/maverickssurf

For the uninitiated, this is the most kick-ass surfing event on the planet.

Conditions are killer.

These are the best big-wave surfers in the world and they get 24 hours notice to show up.

Here is a preview (warning - this took forever to download and I have pretty fast whatever):

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=...

I have to live in one of the coolest places on the planet. This notice was sent to me by our local Chamber of Commerce.

[cboy4]

1. Oh, I love going to this even though the beach is a fricken

madhouse!!!

I'm so mad I can't make it, especially since it was canceled last winter when I was available. x(

I can't believe its been a year already!!

Everyone here is saying, "What is Mavericks?" Don't they play in Dallas? lol


Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press
Tyler Smith during the Mavericks Surf Contest in Half Moon Bay, Calif., in 2006.


HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — The image of the quintessential American surfer — a bronzed slacker in board shorts — may be firmly entrenched. But that surfer dude bears little resemblance to the athletes known as big-wave surfers, a small community composed of men and women who often become amateur oceanographers and experts in wave dynamics in order to ride waves that can be more than 50 feet high.

On Saturday, this community will gather here for the Super Bowl of big-wave surfing: the Mavericks Surf Contest, which pits 24 surfers against one another — and against some of the most treacherous surfing conditions in the world.

An underwater rock formation is partly responsible for the spectacular breaks that can result in towering walls of water, which can deliver harsh punishment to the surfers if they wipe out. Mark Foo, a legendary big-wave surfer from Hawaii, died while trying to surf Mavericks in 1994. So big-wave surfers must do more than wax their boards and wait for waves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/sports/othersports/12surfing.html?em&ex=1200200400&en=f1f20d2571f09f47&ei=5087%0A