Big-Wave Contest Outcome Triggers Uncivil War
Another big-wave surfing season is drawing to a close and Mike Parsons is kicking out in style--with $60,000 in his trunks and “stoke” enough to last the summer.
The San Clemente surfer was handed the check Thursday night during an awards ceremony in Orange County, as winner of the Swell XXL Big Wave contest, sponsored by https://www.swell.com and honoring the person riding the biggest wave of winter.
Parsons’ wave was big and certainly dramatic, an oceanic skyscraper cresting at about 66 feet, breaking over a shallow seamount called Cortes Bank, 100 miles off Orange County.
And while he may be deserving of such reward--in waves so large death is always a possibility--you can take this to the bank: His victory is sure to generate a groundswell of criticism from the north.
While entries were submitted from throughout the North Pacific, including Hawaii and, notably, Jaws off Maui, judges this week had pretty much narrowed the field to three: Parsons, Darryl “Flea” Virostko and Noah Johnson, the latter two hailing from Santa Cruz and submitting entries from nearby Maverick’s after an enormous swell that struck last Dec. 22.
The somewhat clannish wave riders from the Santa Cruz area aren’t going to take Parsons’ triumph lightly. That became apparent during the past week as a war of words, between north and south, has been waged in discussion rooms of swell.com and https://www.mavsurfer.com.
A verbal grenade lobbed northward, backing Parsons by saying that Flea “is going down,” prompted malicious return fire:
“The only thing going down is Swell. They have no money they have no love and after this whole big-wave awards is over they will close the doors just like the rest of the [dot-coms].
“The inside scoop is no paddle-surf award [all the finalists were towed into their waves via personal watercraft], no big-wave surfer-of-the-year award [for Flea] and the winner will be Mike Parsons because he is the flavor of the month.
“Flea’s wave was by far the heaviest wave out of any entry. Maybe not as tall but neither Parsons or Johnson would have ever attempted such a wave. Flea is on another level . . . “
To which it was pointed out that Flea, while making the drop down the concave face of a 55-foot green Maverick’s monster, flew like an actual flea after straightening out and having the wave explode at his heels.
“Waaaaaait a minute!!! What’s wrong with this picture? A guy who gets cart-wheeled should take home all the money? I’m sorry but I don’t buy it.
“No disrespect to Flea, that was an awesome ride while it lasted, but it should not be a contest winner--not even a Gnarliest Wave contest winner. Best Wipeout? Gets my vote!”
Understandably, a fair amount of ammo was spent on Swell, the San Juan Capistrano company that sponsored not only the contest but the expedition to Cortes Bank.
Parsons, 35, was one of the invitees, along with three others, but Swell editor Evan Slater is no fool. He also invited Maverick’s superstars Peter Mel and Ken Collins, neither of whom caught waves near the size of that ridden by Parsons.
“It should also be pointed out that five of the nine judges weren’t from the company,” Slater says, adding that his site is not yet in danger of sinking, like other dot-coms.
Perhaps shrewdly, it was Slater who cast the lone vote for Flea in an 8-1 tally favoring Parsons.
“I prefer to rule more with my heart than with a ruler,” he explains. “That wave [last Dec. 22] brought out the most emotion in me for sure--to this day I still have nightmares about it.”
But the other judges, in a four-hour discussion over pizza and beer, looking at every angle of every entry on prints and video tape, chose height over hollowness and, to some extent, the distance traveled to eerie Cortes.
“[Parsons’] wave is 100 miles away from the coast. Flea’s is 800 yards from a Starbucks,” Sam George, editor of Surfer magazine and a Swell XXL judge, said in a posting on the site Wednesday, tipping his hat.
To which came a somewhat illiterate shot from the north: “Ya Flea’s is only 100 yards from jagged rocks the size of your beach flats house now what’s gnarlyer? If you fall at corny blankets [Cortes Bank?] you don’t hit nothing.”
Perhaps. But if you’re Mike Parsons and you stay on your feet, you strike serious pay dirt.
Also cashing in was Aaron Chang, who earned $10,000 for taking the photo that best captured the winning wave. He edged Robert Brown, who also was at Cortes and today is probably harboring some ill will of his own.
*
Playing a part in the organization of Larry “Flame” Moore’s Cortes Bank expedition, dubbed Project Neptune, was Surf News publisher Bill Sharp, who was also a Swell XXL judge and the brainchild of the 1998 K2 Big Wave Challenge (with $50,000 going to another “Southerner” in Carlsbad’s Taylor Knox).
All three events helped spur a resurgence in the popularity of big-wave surfing, and Sharp says there’s no reason to stop now. His “next zany big-wave scheme” is Project Sea Monster, “a three-year expedition to hunt down and kill the biggest waves on the planet, going places we’ve never gone.”
He says the specific targets remain “classified,” meaning he hasn’t come up with them yet, “but if you said the northwest Hawaiian Island chain or that region between San Francisco and Vancouver you’d be getting warm for a couple of the first Northern Hemisphere odysseys.”
Sharp plans to hold two surfing adventures each winter and one each summer, “with three teams per trip which would rotate in and out so it’s not the same guys each time.”
But first he’s going to have to do some fishing--for corporate sponsorship, as he anticipates a cost of about $2 million.
“There’s still a ways to go on details,” he said in an e-mailed announcement. “But it could have some solid TV appeal because it has all those elements of adventure, extreme sports, ocean science, hip personalities, travel to exotic or historic locales, motorized gizmos, near-death experiences, etc.”
SALTWATER FISHING
* Local: The Marina del Rey Halibut Derby is this weekend and the weather is expected to be glorious. However, the forecast remains gloomy for halibut fishing as the flatfish, for some reason, have not yet made their seasonal influx into Santa Monica Bay. For entry details, call (310) 827-4855. For details on the Santa Monica Bay Halibut Derby April 7-8, call (310) 450-5131.
* Catalina: The white seabass watch is on, conditions are ideal and the big croakers seem about to embark on one of those explosive feeding forays that make them one of the most sought-after game fish in Southland waters. Eight anglers aboard Alexes out of 22nd Street Landing on Wednesday boated eight seabass to about 25 pounds. (A one-fish limit is in effect until June 15.) Private boaters are getting better action than those aboard larger party boats, but past seasons have shown that it takes time for the fish to get accustomed to so much activity.
* Cabo San Lucas: Fishing is still unseasonably slow, but the cooler, green water has attracted dozens of swordfish. The season’s first, a 200-pounder caught aboard Gaviota X, was logged late last week. Since then, a 400-pounder was caught on Gaviota and a 240-pounder was caught aboard La Brisa. However, yellowfin tuna remain the only reliable target.
* East Cape/La Paz: Abnormally cool water has slowed fishing here too, but schools of small tuna are being encountered in the bluer water offshore--and the bluer water is slowly warming and moving closer to shore. Marlin action is fair, but should pick up dramatically if this trend continues. Up north, off Muertos Bay near La Paz, yellowtail averaging 15-20 pounds are readily striking sardines.
ON TAP
Fly Fishing Specialties in Van Nuys (formerly The Fishermen’s Spot) is holding its annual parking-lot festival Sunday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Manufacturers and sales reps from name companies will be showing and selling the latest in rods, reels, tackle, accessories and clothing. Details: (818) 785-7306. . . . The Orange County Boat Show, sponsored by the Southern California Marine Assn., is scheduled April 5-8 at Anaheim Convention Center. Cost is $9 for adults and free for children 12 and under. Hours are noon-9 p.m. Thursday, noon-10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.
WINDING UP
Animal-rights activists can say what they want about hunters, but there is no arguing that those who like to hunt are those who do the most to benefit wildlife.
This has long been the case, but more visible evidence was presented last weekend at the Mule Deer Foundation’s inaugural convention in Reno, where a Utah permit sold for a whopping $66,000, and a Nevada deer permit went for $60,000.
In all, six states raised $182,000 to be used to help stop the decline of mule deer throughout the west, due largely to changes in habitat.
“They’re the ones putting in the money,” said Bill Morrill, president of the Mule Deer Foundation. “These hunts are not worth nearly that kind of money, but [the fund-raisers] are a way people who are blessed with abundant resources can give something back to the resource.”
*
* FISH, SKI REPORTS: D12