https://www.instagram.com/p/BrfnSMCgJdT/
You have heard by now that Maverick’s is apocalyptically big today. The Big Wave Tour called the event a “maybe” after the forecast showed a system whipping up waves in the death-defying region. Then they looked a little closer and called the event an “oh, hell no.”
Greg Long, a man who knows big waves better than nearly anyone and a man who has spent a lifetime navigating the vagaries of the surf forecast, explained the decision via text message. “Going to be a lot of bump on it in the a.m. left over from three days of south wind prior,” he wrote. “It’s not too big, just sketchy conditions to try and surf at that size.”
Well, as is so often the case with predicting the future, it looks like the BWT might have called it wrong—judging from the comfort of a couch, that is. Scrolling through clips from early Monday morning, Maverick’s is just about as good as Maverick’s gets. Above and below are two clips that show what things looked like on the morning of December 17.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrfxoAmBBCw/
Again, it’s easy to armchair quarterback, and although the Big Wave Tour may be copping some flak after calling off not one but two events in the face of waves that are “too big,” at some point, despite the masses’ lust for blood, someone’s got to pull the plug. It’s a fine line to walk between the most exciting event ever and the most tragic one, and erring on the side of caution is understandable. “It felt like it was getting too dangerous,” Mike Parsons said about calling off the Jaws Challenge. “It’s a tough call to make at the end of the day, but safety has to remain the number one thing.”
