The World Surf League is currently monitoring a sizeable swell headed toward California that could see the final Big Wave Tour event at Maverick’s run on Monday. Thirty to 40-foot surf is projected.
BWT athletes have had the benefit of an especially active season in the Atlantic and Pacific. But that’s meant a marathon of sorts–dropping everything to compete in big wave contests stacked on top of one another. There were only ten days between the conclusion of the Nazaré Challenge and the Jaws Challenge, and if Maverick’s were to run on Monday, the guys and gals on the BWT will have had three short weeks to recover from fatigue and injury to compete again at the highest level.
ABC7 broke the news on Monday when reporter Brandon Behle reached out to the WSL on Twitter.
“We’re monitoring the swell very closely,” the WSL replied on the platform.
We’re monitoring the swell very closely!
— World Surf League (@wsl) December 10, 2018
A yellow alert could come as early as Thursday.
And while it’s still too early to call, WSL forecaster Mark Sponsler told ABC7 that even if this swell doesn’t cooperate there’s a good chance Maverick’s will run this year – the first time since the WSL took over the permit to run an event at Half Moon Bay from Cartel Management, the company behind Titans of Mavericks.
“A weak El Niño should help fuel the jet stream, but it’s slow in coming so later in the season is probably a better option,” explained Sponsler.
When (or, if) Mav’s does run, it’ll be downright monumental. It will be the first time women will compete at California’s resident monster wave. And to conclude the Big Wave Tour at the very place a group of female big wave surfers and an attorney fought the governing body of professional surfing tooth and nail for equal pay would be somewhat poetic. It’ll be the second time this year the woman who takes first will walk away with the same size paycheck as her male counterpart – a cool $20,000.
