Mavericks

Week 6

Mavericks
February 13, 2010

Chased by a monster. Surfing insanity. Cheating death. These were some of the captions I thought of when I was looking through the images I took at the Mavericks Surf Competition this weekend at Pillar Point near Half Moon Bay. I'll start by saying that I was somewhat disappointed in the quality of images I got from the shoot. They are not the best quality technically, but I liked the way they give perspective to how massive and formidable the ocean is for these surfers. There are plenty of shots, the above included that give a pretty stark and humbling picture of what these 24 big wave surfers were up against that day. Dropping in on wave at Mavericks is like jumping off of a 3, even 4 story building. A moving building. One that's trying to eat you.

Now, I'm no surfer, but that seems pretty insane to do willingly. I'm glad they do, though, as we get quite the spectacle and inspiration as onlookers from the courage and skill that's required to even paddle out into such conditions, much less to attempt riding waves of this magnitude.

Big wave surfer Chris Bertish from South Africa won the contest admitting he was terrified, that he even considered not going back out at one point. The waves were HUGE. Even from a half mile away, you could get a sense of their scale by watching the water fall as the waves crested, and witnessing the explosion of energy as they crashed back into the sea.

From a photography stand-point, I learned a few things. Use some filters to cut through the haze of the morning fog and sea-spray perpetually in the air surrounding the waves. Get a bigger lens. Even with the 400mm rented Canon lens and 1.4x teleconverter to increase my reach, being 1/2 mile away didn't allow anything resembling a close up. Get on a boat. There are numerous operations that take boats out for spectators and photographers to be much closer to the action... although they cost you $350+ just to get on the vessel.

Even with all the challenges, I am glad I went to the event. Looking forward to the next 48-hour text message notice that Mavericks is on... hopefully again next year.