The myth, the legend. Photo: Titans of Mavericks
Maverick’s has a very long and storied past. It has taken lives. It has made careers. But more than anything else, it has captured the imaginations of generation after generation of surfers. The massive wave in Half Moon Bay, California, is timeless.
From the very beginning, Mav’s was shrouded in secrecy. It is one of the few breaks on earth that managed to remain a secret. For more than a decade, the man responsible for keeping that secret from the masses was Jeff Clark, a carpenter who, starting around 1975, rode the wave solo. On a huge, clean northwest swell, the 18-year-old Clark paddled out alone. As a goofy-footer, he initially rode the left. As he learned more about the wave, he learned to surf in a regular stance so he could surf the right on his forehand. Although word didn’t get out, Clark did try and convince some of his friends to ride it with him–there were just no takers, and Clark had Maverick’s as his own personal playground.
That all changed on January 22, 1990. Led by Clark, David Schmidt and Tom Powers tracked a massive swell to Pillar Point, and after that session, the word got out. Schmidt and Powers had scored the biggest and best waves of their life, and California suddenly gained its own version of Waimea Bay. It wasn’t long before the cliffs were lined with spectators and the channel was full of photographers. By 1992, it landed the cover of Surfer, and the surf world went nuts. Maverick’s had begun its ascent to where it is today.
According to the Encyclopedia of Surfing, Maverick’s is named after a german shepherd. In the winter of 1961, three surfers from Santa Cruz rode a few of the waves inside the rocks at Pillar Point. Alex Matienzo, Jim Thompson, and Dick Notmeyer watched the massive waves breaking farther out to sea for years. Often, the german shepherd would attempt to follow them into the water, prompting them to name the wave after it.
The wave at Maverick’s doesn’t work until things are big enough to be a little hairy. It shows a semblance of what it can become around 15 feet, and when on those days where 40-footers are tumbling over the reef… watch out. Maverick’s can be a much longer ride than many assume. The reef creates three sections, which can, on very rare occasions, connect.
Just a few years after Maverick’s made its debut on the cover of Surfer Magazine, tow surfing made its way onto the scene. Although it was 1994 that towing first made an appearance, it wasn’t until the back end of the 19’s that it really started to catch on. The now-infamous Maverick’s crew–who each have incredibly interesting life stories surrounding the wave–included Ken Collins, Peter Mel, Darryl Virostko, and Clark, used jet skis to surf the biggest waves anyone had ever ridden at Mav’s. Of course, tow-surfing turned out to be a bit of a fad, and surfer’s interest waned quickly. By 2010, it was almost non-existent, except for days where paddling was impossible. Dorian’s first session there flipped the surf world on its head and redefined what was possible under one’s own steam.
Although surfing giant Maverick’s has been a crowning achievement for many surfers, it has taken the lives of some of the world’s best. On December 23, 1994, Hawaiian legend Mark Foo drowned on a 15-foot wave. Then, in 2011, another Hawaiian, Sion Milosky lost his life after winning Surfing Magazine’s North Shore Underground Contest, which awarded him $25,000 in travel money. Both men were highly respected and preternaturally talented surfers. “It just goes to show,” Clark said to the Times after Foo’s death,”that no matter how prepared you are, you’re in Neptune’s playground.”
