Mavericks surf contest sold; will there be an event this winter?

HALF MOON BAY — The organizers of a popular big-wave surf contest off Half Moon Bay have reached an agreement that will keep the Mavericks event going, according to a motion filed in U.S. District Bankruptcy Court.

The World Surf League has scooped up the invitational contest at the famous break outside of Pillar Point Harbor in a $525,000 sale that seeks approval by a bankruptcy court judge in Los Angeles.

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The WSL has added Mavericks to its Big Wave Tour calendar for the 2017-18 season, according to a news release attached to the motion that was filed late Wednesday.

A hearing for the sale’s approval is scheduled Sept. 13. The motion also requested that the San Mateo Harbor District permit to hold the surfing event be transferred to the new organizers. Harbor commissioner Sabrina Brennan said Thursday the commission also must approve the sale for it to become official.

“We’re delighted to have the opportunity to work with the big wave community in bringing the Mavericks event to life on the international stage,” World Surf League chief executive Sophie Goldschmidt said in a statement. “The league has always held a huge amount of respect for both the venue and its community as one of the pillars of big wave surfing.”

Adding Mavericks to the calendar this season “was a no brainer,” according to Big Wave Tour commissioner Mike Parsons.

“Every big wave surfer and fan on the planet knows that Mavericks holds a special place within this community,” he said in a statement.

The agreement with the WSL came about after Titans of Mavericks owners filed for bankruptcy in January when sponsorship money failed to come through. Titans is the rebranded name of the contest by Griffin Guess, a Capitola entrepreneur who owns Cartel Management.

Guess said Thursday the agreement between the parties will benefit the surfers, fans of big-wave riding and the Half Moon Bay community.

“There is an exciting future ahead,” Guess said. “The WSL has the wherewithal, the foundation and the size” to bring Mavericks together. “They’ll do everything in their power to make it a hit.”

The news release also said Guess would continue to operate under the Titans of Mavericks brand, producing lifestyle goods and services and media content. Guess said he wasn’t at liberty to discuss his future involvement but sounded as passionate about helping make it a mega event as the day he became involved in it three years ago.

Many welcomed the Big Wave Tour’s takeover that will give the surfers a platform to showcase their talent. The contest would be particularly meaningful for six women invitees competing at the fearsome wave for the first time. Women were included last year before Cartel canceled the tournament because of financial struggles.

“The WSL has a track record of inclusion of women so it makes me feel good,” Harbor commissioner Brennan said. “It’s a start.”

While the one-day contest provides excitement and attention around big-wave surfing, it also has drawbacks that frustrate veterans such as Zach Wormhoudt of Santa Cruz.

The skateboard park designer said too many surfers not equipped to handle giant waves now paddle into the Mavericks lineup to prove something. It has made some days so crowded “the crowd is more dangerous than the wave itself,” Wormhoudt said.

The man who has competed in all 10 Mavericks events also is worried WSL officials will open the contest to its regular tour competitors instead of the local Bay Area surf community. In the past, the Mavericks contest has featured mostly local surfers with a handful of top competitors who had made the break part of their regular winter stop.

Mavericks’ tournament usually is held between mid-November and March. Before the deal, the Big Wave Tour had only three events scheduled this season, including upcoming competitions in Portugal and Maui. In March, the tour announced it had dropped five other events in a reorganization.

However, WSL officials continued to pursue Mavericks, which has been held independently 10 times since 1999.

The last contest at Princeton-by-the-Sea was held in February 2016 under the direction of Cartel, which went into debt while facing allegations it had wrested control of the event from the local surfing community.

It declared bankruptcy this year throwing the event’s future into question. A public sale for June 1 was canceled because of a lack of interest. Cartel owed debtors a total of $5 million, according to court records.

WSL officials, however, held out hope it could run the event because of Mavericks’ potential for a big draw and media coverage, although the competition cannot be seen from the beach.

The legal bickering left the surfers frustrated, and in some cases, calling for the end of an organized competition.

“A lot of us feel maybe we don’t need this contest if it is going to be problems all the time,” said San Francisco waterman Grant Washburn, who has competed in all 10 tournaments. “It is fairly disrespectful to continuously have these things thrown on it. This is a huge circus and is it really befitting of this place?”

Mavericks is one of the world’s most punishing and awe-inspiring big-wave surf breaks. But it has struggled through mismanagement and dysfunction since the idea to hold an invitational began. It came to a head since Mavericks pioneer Jeff Clark partnered with Guess in 2014 to try to solve the organizational flaws. Guess rebranded the competition Titans of Mavericks and promised more prize money for the surfers and better media exposure that would catapult the event to the top of the extreme-sports world.

News of the sale was bittersweet for Clark, who remains frustrated over losing control of his event to Cartel. But the famed surfer is “stoked it’s the WSL,” he said Thursday.

“It’s going to be a good event,” added Clark, who hopes to be involved with WSL organizers. “I’m sad to see Cartel get away with what they did.”

Guess said in court documents that Cartel has spent more than $3 million in developing the brand in the past 1½ years. He said the financial problems have been caused by delayed sponsor payments, political complications, litigation and “the need to maintain the necessary permits in the face of continuing efforts by certain third parties to negatively affect the debtors.”

Body Glove International recently withdrew a $1.5 million claim, leaving four main debtors in the case.

“Sometimes the people that are running these things think they are doing all the surfers a favor,” said Washburn, who has surfed at Mavericks for more than 25 years. “But most of the surfers don’t like this. They just want it to go away.”

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