Mavericks Success in XXL Awards

Mavericks surfers are glowing with success after the 2009 Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards in Los Angeles.

Greg Long out-surfed his fellow riders to win the coveted Ride of the Year award and $50,000, though for a ride in Cape Town, not at Mavericks.

The ninth annual awards, called the Oscars of surfing, drew over 2,000 top surfers and members of the industry and were presented on Friday in the Grove Theater in Anaheim by Mavericks pioneer and Contest Director, Jeff Clark.

'I am glad to have won this as a paddle in wave and without a PWC, - Jet Ski - because most recognized big wave surfers will tell you this is the most difficult of the two,' said Greg, aged 26 and the 2008 Mavericks Champion from San Clemente, south of Los Angeles.

'To catch a wave on your own power is an unbelievable feeling,' he is quoted as saying in Surfersvillage Global Surf News

Greg's achievement came in the Red Bull Big Wave Africa contest last July at Dungeons, off Cape Town. It came with the distinction of being the only entry in the Ride of the Year Category that was a paddle in, all the other rides being with the help of a Jet Ski.

'Paddling into a monster Dungeons peak and banking off the bottom into a huge tube ride, Long walked a fine line between glory and the punishing of a lifetime, before being spat out into the channel,' said Surfersvillage in their report.

The award is another notch for Greg in a line of successes in the Billabong awards. Under his board are also the Biggest Wave Award for the 2006/2007 season, the Monster Paddle Award '07/'08, and two Best Over All Performance Awards for '07/'08 and '03/'04.

'I am feeling great, it’s my fifth time and now it’s the big one,' said Long. 'That is what is so amazing about this event, it brings everyone together at the end of the year.

'When we are out there riding waves, this is the last thing on our mind, we are out there because we love it.'

Greg had also been short-listed, along with San Franciscan surfer and filmmaker, Grant Washburn, and others, for the Verizon Wipeout Award, but this went deservedly to Australian surfer Ross Clarke-Jones for a 'near life-ending battering' off the Tasmanian coast. For the first time, this aspect of the awards were voted on by the public.

But Mavericks did feature in the honours for Monster Paddle Award - surfing without a tow-in from a Jet Ski - when Derek Dunfee of San Diego came out top. Derek, of San Diego, 'used perfect positioning to complete a classic big wave ride' at Mavericks on November 30, '08, one of two days at Thanksgiving weekend that were arguably the best ever at Half Moon Bay.

Derek beat Grant 'Twiggy' Baker, from South Africa, who with Rusty Long, has just surfed a record 100ft wave hundreds of miles off Chile, and Californian Nathan Fletcher, competiton entries that were also from those two epic days at Mavericks.

'That day was the best day of my life and I wasn’t sure if I was getting nominated,' said Derek.

'I am 26 and I feel pretty honored to win and be up here with guys I have been looking up to all my life. I want to continue to work my way up and this could be a true turning point to the next stage of my big wave surfing career.'

Twiggy, however, triumphed in both the XXL Biggest Wave Award, and the Surfline Men's Best Overall Performance when he beat fellow-nominee Greg Long. For the Overall Performance, the judges, who are a global panel composed of 250 surf industry, former pros and big wave specialists, gave him top marks for surfing skills exhibited in his win in the Red Bull Big Wave Africa event, a tow-in wave at nearby Tafelberg Reef, and feats at Mavericks and in Mexico.

His prizes were $20,000 and a new Honda Aquatrax PWC.

'When you look at my eyes right now, you can see that I am pretty pumped. Yeah, it is an amazing feeling, not just to myself but also to my family back home in South Africa,' he said.

'It is an honor to win Best Overall Performance and to be the first South African to do it,' he said.

He surfed the Biggest Wave at Tafelberg Reef, a wave claimed to be the biggest ever tackled in his home country of South Africa.

Surfersvillage commented, 'The victories came as a long overdue reward for (the) diminutive natural footer, who has been consistently nominated since the XXL awards’ inception but never taken out a win.'

For full reports and pics of the Billabong awards: www.billabongxxl.com www.maverickssurf.com and www.surfersvillage.com

Pics: Greg Long receiving his award; Derek Dunfee at Mavericks; Twiggy Baker receiving his award; Greg Long, Jeff Clark, Jamie Sterling and Frank Quirarte, photo by Seth Migdail

Mavericks Surfers & Photographers in XXL Awards

Nominations for this year's Oscars of the surfing world have been released with a clutch of Mavericks

surfers and photographers riding high among them.


Mavericks pioneer Jeff Clark - pic lower left - will also be a presenter at the 2009 Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards to be held at the Grove Theater in Anaheim, California on Friday, April 17.

Nominations, selected from over 550 images, are for the Billabong XXL’s 'most revered categories, including the $50,000 Ride of the Year, XXL Biggest Wave, Monster Paddle and Monster Tube,' says the Billabong press release.

'In all, over $130,000 in prize money will be awarded when the winners are revealed at the XXL-night festivities, a festive red carpet evening which has grown to be known as the Oscars of surfing.'

The Thanksgiving weekend produced swells of 30 ft to 45 ft at Mavericks, Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, in what has been described on the BillabongXXL.com website as 'two of the most perfect days ever seen' there.

The result was that the Monster Paddle division of the competition was inundated with spectacular rides that not only contributed to a record number of entries overall but 'raised the bar ever higher' in the class, ie surfing without a tow-in from a jet ski.

Of the finalists, says the press release, 'three rides come from what may be the best day ever at Maverick’s' with Grant 'Twiggy' Baker of Durban, South Africa, and Californians Nathan Fletcher and Derek Dunfee.

Together with Rusty Long - pic of them both at Mavericks above - Twiggy is just surfacing from an April 1 roller coaster of an event, headlining around the world for an apparent breaking of the 100ft surfing barrier off the coast of Chile!!! A video, 'A day with Twiggy' featured on Fuel TV's 'The Daily Habit' by Powerlines Productions, that filmed him at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, has just been posted on the maverickssurf.com website

For the first time ever, competition organizers have thrown open the fun Verizon Wireless Wipeout Award to a public vote. Surfing fans are invited via the Billabong website to text for one of five contenders.

From California these include Greg Long and his 'eardrum-bursting depth charge at Maverick’s,' - pic top right - from which he was rescued by Jeff Clark on a jet ski, and the San Francisco surfer and filmmaker, Grant Washburn, and his 'cockroach-influenced backslide down the face at Maverick’s...'

The top prize of $50,000 for the Billabong XXL Ride of the Year Award will go to the
'surfer with the single most amazing performance on a big wave captured on video'.

Among the five winning nominations for this are Greg Long 'for one of the biggest paddle-in barrels ever seen during the Red Bull Big Wave Africa event at Dungeons,' and California’s Brian Conley with what Billabong say is 'a new twist', nominated 'both for escaping a deep tube in Mexico, and for filming it as well, using a hand-held Point-Of-View camera throughout the ride.'

Nominees for the Surfline Best Overall Performance Award include Grant “Twiggy” Baker 'whose highlights include winning the Red Bull Big Wave Africa event at Cape Town’s Dungeons, riding a huge tow-in wave at nearby Tafelberg Reef and a dominating session on an epic day at Maverick’s near San Francisco,' and Greg Long 'for a year which included a perfect 10 point barrel ride at Dungeons, an eardrum-bursting bomb at Maverick’s, gaping storm tubes in Ireland and runs to Chile and the Pacific Northwest...'

Among the girls there are three finalists for the top $5,000 prize for the Billabong Girls Performance Award. One is 'perennial finalist Jamilah Star for some intimidating drops at the legendary Maverick’s break...'

This will be the ninth annual Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards presented by Monster Energy. Scores of big wave surfing’s elite will be gathered that night along with some 2,250 surf industry VIPs, says the Billabong press release.

pics above taken from the Billabong and Mavericks websites

For all details about the competition and a feast of big wave pics and videos see the website at www.BillabongXXL.com.

The entire show will be carried on a live webcast at BillabongXXL.com and will be the subject of a one-hour TV special on ESPN2 on the evening of May 29, 2009.