After months of tracking the patterns of Mother Nature, contest director Jeff Clark gave the official greenlight for the 2007/2008 Mavericks Surf Contest. With less than 48 hours to check in, 24 of the world’s most accomplished big-wave surfers dropped what they were doing and hauled ass to one of the most infamous breaks on the planet. The Mavericks Surf Contest was held in solid 25-30 foot swell & culminated in a hard fought victory for San Clemente native, Greg Long. Grant “Twiggy” Baker finished second and Jamie Sterling was third. A record number of surf fans enjoyed the action at the beach as thousands descended on Pillar Point. Even more enjoyed the alternate viewing options as more than 250,000 viewed the free-live webcast on Myspace.com and more than 1,000 people watched the competition on the big screen at the live viewing party at AT&T Park in San Francisco. 

Following six intense heats featuring some of the finest watermen on the planet, in ideal Mavericks conditions, the finals are already being recognized as one of the most competitive and inspirational in the Contest’s history.

Despite the high stakes and back and forth lead changes, camaraderie ultimately stole the spotlight when, at the post-event awards ceremony, it was revealed that the six finalists, while looking out at seemingly flat water, agreed to split their shares of the prize purse evenly no matter the outcome.

“It was a little slow out there,” Greg said. “We were just laughing and talking about how amazing our lives are. I think we all agreed: It’s not about the money; it’s about the love of it. The finalists included San Francisco’s Grant Washburn, Hawaii’s Jamie Sterling, South Africa’s Grant Baker, Santa Cruz’s Tyler Smith and Southern Californian Evan Slater. Their agreement in the lineup had no ill effects on the competition between them , if anything it seemed to raise the bar in the water. 

Soon after the men made their pact, the inconsistent 15 to 20 foot waves gave way to some of the afternoon’s heaviest sets. Greg took on one of the largest. He spotted it on the horizon, he took a few strokes out, spun around on his board and charged hard. “I got up and the wave started sitting up more. I was thinking ‘Did I blow it?’. Had he failed to pull off the critical drop, the answer would’ve been yes. But Long landed it, along with a perfect-wave score of 10 from the judges.