by Ed Temperley on Thursday 5th January, 2012 639284 Views
21 of 23
There's a further reason the uninitiated may be having nightmares about finding themselves in the line-up come Thursday. The 17ft at 16 second swell will be throwing regular 40ft faces in the later stages of Thursday and early on Friday. The only fly in the ointment of the forthcoming swell is the peak arrives overnight and local winds are forecast to be blustery. The NPAC storm track is currently cleaved open with a clear shot for activity from Japan to California. A remarkably straight westerly Jet Stream will bring three successive lows, unsurprisingly also west to bear on the the reef at Mavericks. Swell two, arriving on Thursday 5th is currently bringing large surf in the 30ft plus range to the Hawaiian island chain. Swell three arriving on Tuesday 10th, looks be be briefly intense before dissipating; as ever there's a reasonable chance of change this far out.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteWhen it's big and west here the sets will first crush you, then dash you against the cliffs. The westerly direction shuts-off the movement of water from the north-west and into the relative safety of the southern reaches.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteShawn Dollar is a man who knows his way around this line-up.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteAs do this trio by the looks of it, going three ways up on a Mavericks right.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteShawn Dollar, making it?
© 2013 Frank QuirarteSkin Dog dropping in. Long-time Mavericks surfer Ken "Skindog" Collins is this season working as the liaison with the competitors and the new Mavericks Invitational event which replaces the various and now previous incarnations. A lackluster early season for big waves convinced organisers to shift the contest window forward a month, and it'll now run from January 1st through March 31, 2012. This year they also plan to hold the opening ceremony at a time when there are waves, which makes it this Friday. "It's a new year for our group, with a lot of positive changes and a new direction to bring this event back to the way it should be, for the surfers," Reckons Contest Director and Mavs pioneer Jeff Clark.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteMavericks at this size can look like a punchy a-frame you'd see down your local, except one which has been at the plant food and grown into a baby of monstrous proportions with wild swinging fists capable of swatting you like a fly.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteRusty Long from San Clemente was back at Mavs after a time on the sidelines. He put on a show getting critical and showing the new faces where you're supposed to sit.
© 2013 Frank Quirarte[FWN-13815:right:fff:000::Frank Quirarte:300]Rusty also took the wipeout of the day with this drop not letting him in. "The top bit wasn't very steep and then it hit a ledge." He said "It was like going over the edge of a hill. It sent me vertical at such a high speed."
Rusty was pushed deep and hard towards the bottom on this one.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteWhen Rusty come up clean, patted himself down to make sure everything was in the right place and paddled himself out of the impact zone he said he felt strong and chuffed to have ridden through the impact so well.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteMavericks lip flare and projection.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteThe crowd was all over the more manageable ones.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteWhat happens when enthusiasm and inexperience gets involved in a situation it shouldn't have received an invitation to attend. Colin Dwyer an alternate into the Mavs event gets tangled up with a guy who was shortly ordered from the water following this attempted stumble-in.
© 2013 Frank QuirartePat and Tanner Gudauskas were out there giving it a solid go. By all accounts both brothers were more than holding their own, both catching their fair share of waves.
© 2013 Frank QuirartePat's well on his way back from injury it would seem. "I've been training hard and in the water for a couple days." Said he. "I feel good, and what better place to test it than Maverick's?"
© 2013 Frank QuirarteBrother Tanner also seemed to be taking it in his stride.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteJosh performing the one footed Mavericks shuffle ... not recommended.
© 2013 Frank Quirarte"Ben Wilkinson shows up every swell and stays in the water longer than most people, charging the biggest waves." Reckons Jeff Clark. The Australians's reward has been an invitation into the paddle comp.
© 2013 Frank Quirarte
Rusty Long happy to be back in the saddle.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteDouble drop of Mavs power.
© 2013 Frank QuirarteExpect plenty more of this when Thursday's swell shows up.
© 2013 Frank Quirarte639284 Visits -
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