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| Mavericks belongs to the world By Lewis Rutherfurd [ lewis@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 11:08 AM PST As a kid, Ion Banner bounced around between Oakland and the Coastside. When he was 14 and just getting into surfing he took his dog out to Pillar Point, and the sight of big, booming waves breaking offshore drew him farther and farther out on the tidal flats for closer look. "I was looking at the waves and thinking why don't people surf out here?" said Banner, an El Granada resident. "This is like Hawaii." A few people were surfing out there at Mavericks back in the early 1980s - including Jeff Clark. The now-famous waterman founded the Mavericks Surf Contest and pioneered the spot years before. And in his late teens Banner would be drawn back to surf the place too. But those lonely winter days, when only curious locals and a few hardy visitors paddled out, didn't last long much longer. The Mavericks Surf Contest, which Clark started in 1999, and jaw-dropping big-wave visuals in magazines and surf flicks have given Half Moon Bay some heavy credibility that stretches well beyond the surfing world. This year the biggest names in surfing could descend on Mavericks at any time. The contest window opened earlier this month and extends through March. Before the first contest, seasoned big-wave travelers like Richard Schmidt, a forerunner for a steady Santa Cruz contingent, and a crew of Ocean Beach surfers from San Francisco, kept the break crowded and competitive. The attention has been a boon for the surfing world and for the Coastside's global profile. But in the water locals have come to find themselves largely strangers in their own back yard. Banner has been a competitor in most of the five contests to date, and contest alternate Tim West is an El Granada local. They are likely to be overwhelmed by the surfing elite from around the globe. Banner started building up to Mavericks at a few other heavy Coastside spots, places he's loath to name for fear of letting others onto the secret. At 17 he went to Hawaii and stayed for a couple of years, learning the ropes at premier big-wave spots mostly on Kauai. When he came back, he brought a board he thought he could ride at Mavericks. It didn't measure up. Clark ended up shaping Banner his first couple of big-wave boards - "guns," as they are called. Banner's reputation at Mavericks is hard won. He has placed as high as 10th at the contest. He says he missed one event due to "politics." The other one he missed because he turned down the invitation when asked to compete in what he thought were less-than solid waves. "It was really small and I didn't think it represented what we do - it was kind of a big-money thing," said Banner. That kind of stubbornness goes a long way toward explaining Banner's surfing influence on the Coastside. Stories abound about Banner paddling out in giant, hopeless winter storm surf at places like Montara State Beach. And he is well known for desperate late drops into serious Mavericks waves. "Ion is the local backbone at Mavericks now," said West. But there haven't been many other Coastside regulars in the water. Clark notes that the contest years have brought a steady growth in the international crew of elite surfers at the break, but that a surge of locals climbing through the ranks hasn't followed. West and Banner agree that a few other local people have caught big waves out there over the years - but then dropped out of the regular lineup. "There's such a scene out there now. I think they feel a little timid out there with all the pros," said Banner "A little out of place in their own back yard." West, an alternate in last year's cancelled contest as well and Banner's frequent partner in the water, is making his own reputation at Mavericks, a place where deadly wipeouts like the one that killed respected Hawaiian surfer Mark Foo in 1994, are a real possibility and poundings in frigid water are certain. West started surfing Mavericks at 20 on his own, drawn by the waves and the challenge of trying to fit into the lineup. He quickly met Banner and got a few friendly looks from people like Jay Moriarty, a young Santa Cruz phenomenon - much beloved in Mavericks lore - who died in a free diving accident in the Maldives. West had posters of Moriarty on his walls at home. "He had it - he was the most welcoming, warm-spirited person you could ever meet," he said of his early inspiration. West would nearly go down in Mavericks history for a much different encounter. On a November day in 2005, when Mavericks was barely breaking at about 15 feet, West paddled out for a few small lefts and was hit by a great white shark - right where the break's rocky reef drops off into deep-water canyons. "It was the picture perfect day - one of those Corona commercials with the sunset and the ocean," said West. "I just crossed over the shelf and that shark saw me and just blew me out of the water like a torpedo; it was like it breached." The shark's lower jaw slammed into the underside of West's board, leaving the telltale crescent bite and a tooth behind. The upper jaw never clamped down and West paddled away unscathed. The attack made him a celebrity for a while and offers to make the rounds on national television shows came in, but he turned them down. "If I wanted to be recognized for Mavericks, it wouldn't be for this," he recalls thinking at the time. While West is on his way to a different sort of recognition, Grant Washburn, a Mavericks regular, perennial contest standout and San Francisco filmmaker, said that a small turnout at the break from the small towns of the Coastside isn't much of a surprise, given the extreme nature of the challenge. "How many guys are going to want to go for Mavericks?" Washburn said. "One in 10,000 people want to play." A culture of die-hard big-wave surfers takes time to build. Pacifica has produced Mavericks regulars like Shawn Rhodes and Matt Ambrose, but the Pedro Point Surf Club is one of the oldest such organizations on the California coast. Standouts like Dick Keating have mentored a generation of serious surfers. And Santa Cruz has a wide fan of roots under the big-wave family tree that produced many Mavericks standouts, including Darryl "Flea" Virostko, Anthony Tashnick, Ken Collins and Peter Mel, who many consider the top surfer at the break. "It's not surprising that there's not a dozen guys from Half Moon Bay High out there," said Washburn. But a local culture is evolving. Just as he enjoyed willing mentors, West has been breaking trail for a group of local freshmen - not quite a dozen - from Half Moon Bay High School. Michael Joshua, Zach Majocha and Ion's son, Skylar Banner, all 14 - and Ted Fitz, 15, are still too young for the serious days. But Santa Cruz surfers Moriarty and Tashnick started at Mavericks in their teens and the Coastside residents are paying their own dues. "We're working up to it," said Joshua. "We're hoping to get out there this year, maybe catch a few and see how it goes. I know we'll grow up and just push each other more and more." "My mom thinks I'm crazy," said Majocha. "But my dad met Ion the other day. He's getting used to the idea that it might happen." The four are on the newly formed surf team at the high school, but say that not many other students have the same interest in big waves. They are spending time surfing local spots and have all placed at annual surf contests in Pacifica. Skylar Banner has surfed with his father for years and has seen Mavericks up close from the back of a Jet Ski. He has caught a few waves on the inside. He has a view of the surf from his bedroom window. The four have roots in the area and parents who run the gamut from police officers to fishermen and stockbrokers. "Hopefully one day we'll get a lineup out there with five Half Moon Bay locals and not just one," said West. "I've been just trying to tell them to hold their ground," said Banner of the next generation. "Just believe in yourself; this is your place." Banner has been reticent in the past to talk about Mavericks. "Too much venom on my tongue," he said of his struggle to make peace with the crowds and what can be a circus atmosphere. But as the Mavericks scene has developed into a world-class phenomenon, Banner said he has matured as well. Now he can see the upside. "We're lucky we have this wave here in our back yard to challenge ourselves on year after year," said Banner. "Because it's all about the surfing in the end. It's all about the wave." |