Jaws, Outer Reefs, and Waimea on Saturday and then more macking days at Maverick’s
Jamie Mitchell, Jaws, Photo: Fred Pompermayer
Charlie Hutcherson
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The North Pacific is ready to pull us all back in. (Not that we ever really left.) Over the past couple weeks, we documented North Pacific Overdrive back-to-back-to-back-to-back North Pacific swells with realtime coverage from Pipeline, Mav’s, and countless other breaks. When it felt like things were coming back to reality, our coverage went into semi-retirement but the Pacific basin isn’t done flexing yet. (And yes we’ll be documenting this one in realtime, too. Stay tuned.)
Gallery: Solid North Pacific Swell Hits Rest of California
It wasn t all Maverick s last week here s some highlights
Austin Smith-Ford. Photo: Brant Schenk
Marcus Sanders
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First off, apologies. Normally, when California sees its first real winter swell, we’re a little more on it with reporting the various good-epic spots from up and down the state in a timely manner. Last week, though, it was all Maverick’s, all the time, from every angle possible, and we were forced to ignore our bulging inboxes of anything other than Mav’s. Thing is, though: 99.9% of California surfers did not surf Mav’s last week but probably 75% of them scored somewhere provided they found a properly facing stretch of coastline. So it wasn’t just the rhino-chasing hell-brigade who were stoked on the very large swell that swept down the coast on Tuesday. For the rest of us, fickle nooks and crannies were just fine.
Maverick s: Day of Days
Full coverage from arguably the best dawn-to-dusk paddle day ever at Mav s
Photo: Kenan Chan
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Yeah, we love superlatives when it comes to big waves, probably to a fault. (Of course we get excited about this kind of stuff. Waves are rad. Especially big, glassy, all-day waves.) But upon consulting an expert, certain claims can be warranted. In this case, it’s Mav’s grandfather Grant Washburn, who’s been keeping a daily journal of Maverick’s sessions for almost 30 years.
Kai Lenny from above. Photo: Billy Watts
“Of course there’ve been glassier sessions when we could catch more waves but I can’t think of another day with waves that size for the entire day and those kind of conditions,” Washburn said. “There were times when it was good, but not all day at that outer back bowl. We used to call that the ‘outer realm.’ Peter Mel and I talked about that for a decade, and nobody went near it. I’m calling it: