Frank Quirarte photographing Mavericks from the left. Photo by Seth Deroulet
Frank Quirarte, award-winning surf photographer and open ocean lifeguard, recently reminded his online audience that the 2024 Ocean Safety Summit is now just over a month away.
Quirarte, an ocean safety expert and an advocate for water safety skills in general, shared some of the itinerary for the two-day summit. Quirarte detailed that the first day on October 23 begins bright and early at 9 a.m. at the Old Princeton Landing in Princeton by the Sea near Half Moon Bay, California. The first day of the event is free and open to the public, and the post reminded everyone that “all are welcome.”
One of the biggest draws for this two-day event is the presence of World Champion big wave surfer Peter Mel as a speaker. Additionally, the event boasts an appearance from renowned long-distance swimmer Amy Gubser, as well as advice and talks from Brian Garcia from the National Weather Service, an Air Station San Francisco Helicopter Pilot and Rescue swimmer, and numerous other safety professionals.
The second day is “an exclusive opportunity for safety crews, big wave surfers, and PWC Photographers who want to learn how to interact with water safety.”
Quirarte warned that event coordinators will need to get a head count for day two water ops, as there will only be around 30-40 slots available. “If you’re a surfer or photographer, please email us at mavericksrescue@gmail.com with a brief explanation of why you need the training,” reads the post.
As the website for the event has not yet been set up and the official itinerary has not yet been released, I checked in with Pillar Point Harbor Training Patrol Officer Cary Smith firsthand to gain more insight into the event.
Smith shared that he is especially excited about big-wave surfer Peter Mel leading the event this year. “It’s special for so many reasons,” Smith said. “He was one of the first to surf out at Maverick’s back in the day and his proximity to Santa Cruz and the journey he’s been on, I think it’s going to be really cool to have him there.”
Smith said that the excitement is mutual as Mel has attended the last three years. Smith also spoke highly of working with Frank, Eric Nelson, and the Maverick’s water safety team that has supported both the surfing community, and community at large.
“Amy Gubser, who happens to be the wife of one of our harbor patrolmen who just had her epic swim to the Farallon Islands, is going to be talking about perseverance and planning and vision and how you complete a mission like that,” Smith said.
This first day is also categorized as a general safety day, designed to educate “surfers eight to 80, not just big wave surfers,” and surfers who surf anywhere, not just Maverick’s. This day is designed to help people “get an idea of the proper mindset and to help keep them, and those that are in the water with them, aware of their surroundings.”
Specifically, Smith explained that “on day one, we’ll do what we call area familiarization. That involves working on asking yourself ‘where are you going surfing? Where are you parking? Do you have cell phone coverage?’ You go down that whole list of things, like an emergency action plan. You put those together and start the thought process that you could use anywhere in the world.”
Day two is more limited to who can attend, although Smith was clear that this is not designed to exclude, adding that this is one of the few educational events like this, that he knows of, without a cost.
Smith explained that the main difference on day two is that the event becomes more of “a liability thing,” and “it’s also a numbers game. We have the teams, the Maverick’s Water Patrol, and the teams that a lot of the different surfers have personally, and we have some of the public working with all the agencies.” In other words, the event simply does not have the capacity to “take 120 people and put them on the water to run through the drills in time.”
However, just because day two is capped at around 40 people, this doesn’t mean the information is limited to benefit those who attend. The education is applicable to both attendees and event organizers. “Just seeing the evolution of the sport is phenomenal,” Smith said. “What BWRAG (Big Wave Risk Assessment Group) is doing, and what we’re doing in the Ocean Safety Summit, is really giving the insight on what all the teams are doing when they prepare for a strike mission to Cortez Bank or to Peru or to Namibia or wherever it is the world. It’s just putting that information out there that anyone can employ locally.”
Smith explained that besides attendees, putting the event together benefits the nearby community, as rescue efforts are able to be further streamlined and improved for the future.
View this post on Instagram
“The nearest assets are the U.S. Coast Guard station Golden Gate under the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, which is 37 miles to the north, or Santa Cruz, which is 50 plus miles to the south,” Smith said. “Having the ability for us all to work together is critical in saving minutes and seconds when we’re responding to some kind of untamed coast.”
Detailing the types of information the safety summit covers, Smith said, “it’s like, ‘hey, you see somebody face down in the lineup, how do you get them, then see if they’re breathing, and how do you roll them on their back to get their face out of the water?’ If they are hurt and you have a surfboard, how can you get them on the surfboard and get them back to shore?”
As far as what attendees should expect for either day of the summit, Smith said simply to “come as a sponge.” There’s a lot of information to digest and absorb. Smith added, “you’re going to have some experts around the globe that are going to be able to answer questions, and you might get a chance to speak with them on the side and find out things that you didn’t even know you didn’t know. Just having that knowledge, you can make a good decision that may, in fact, change somebody else’s life.”
For more information on the Ocean Safety Summit, send an email to mavericksrescue@gmail.com
