AngelikaEver since Michael has developed a passion for surfing, I keep hearing a lot about what the surf conditions in Pacifica are like. Pacifica is located about 13 miles south of San Francisco and Michael often goes there surfing on the weekend. Almost every Saturday and Sunday morning, the first thing he does is check the surf camera on the Internet. The waves can't be too small, too big, too blown out, and have to meet a specific set of criteria, in short, it's a science in itself. Thankfully, he has a lot of respect for giant waves and stays away from them, but some of the best surfers in the world can't get enough of these monster waves and keep jetting around the world to chase them.

There's only a few big wave surfers, mainly because it's such an extremly high risk sport. Oahu's north shore has some of Hawaii's highest waves during wintertime, and just last week select surfers competed at "Eddie Aikau Big Wave International" with 40 foot waves at Waimea Bay. But even here in California, 25 miles south of San Francisco, just north of Half Moon Bay, there's a town called Princeton-by-the-Sea with a tiny harbor named "Pillar Point" that's hosting a yearly event called "Titans of Mavericks" if the surf conditions are perfect.

This year, the weather phenomenon "El Nino" brought the desired monster waves, and after a hiatus last year, Mavericks was on again. The competition has been around since 1999, but only happened 10 times since then because it requires perfect conditions for the surfers to start tackling the waves. There is a fixed limit of 24 participants for the contest, who are brought in on an invititation-only basis. The event date is determined on very short notice, and requires selected surfers to drop everything immediately and travel to California.

On Febrary 12th this year, all stars were aligned and it was finally happening. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible nowadays to watch the event live at the scene, as the organizers have banned all spectators from the beach since in 2010 a sneaker wave injured several bystanders. Also, truth be told, the surfers are really far out there, visible only through strong binoculars.

The seven hour long Mavericks Live Video shows the best scenes. It's pretty incredibly how some of these pro surfers get pummeled by the waves. As a safety precaution, they're wearing inflatable vests, which can be activated by pulling a string like on a parachute, and then hopefully lifts them up all the way to the surface. If you've ever been caught in the white water of a tiny 4 foot wave, you can imagine how difficult it is in these situations to even tell where's up and where's down.

A few world class surfers have unfortunately lost their lives in the Mavericks waves over the years. Mavericks is the name of the surf spot, where these monster waves are rising. They originate miles away in the Pacific, where winter storms create high wind speeds, and waves then finally build up steeply near the shore where the sandy sea bottom slowly rises. Surfers name these special spots, like the famous "Pipeline" on Oahu, and "Mavericks" in our neck of the woods. Allegedly, it received its name from dog of the first person daring to enter waters there and tackling the big waves. Another surfer named Jeff Clark, a Half Moon Bay native, first started surfing the Mavericks waves at age 17, way before the spot became world famous. Nowadays he's operating a surf shop in Princetown-by-the-Sea, named, you guessed it, Mavericks. He prides himself of personally testing all surfboards created and sold on the premises in the nearby ocean.

Greetings from big wave country:

Angelika & Michael

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• More topics you might be interested in:

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