Mavericks: Northern California’s Big Wave Mecca

Thirty miles south of San Francisco, a submerged rock formation called the Mavericks reef transforms winter groundswells into some of the most terrifying waves on the planet. On the right swell, faces reach forty feet and beyond — cold, powerful, and unforgiving.

The break was kept largely secret by local surfers until 1990, when Jeff Clark finally convinced a group of professionals to paddle out with him. What they witnessed changed big wave surfing forever. Within a decade, Mavericks had become the proving ground for the world’s most fearless watermen.

Today, an invite-only contest draws the elite of big wave surfing to Half Moon Bay each winter. But the real Mavericks experience belongs to the dedicated few who monitor buoys obsessively, make the call on twelve hours notice, and paddle into mountains of cold water because they simply cannot imagine not doing so.