Read an article today about the most famous ride in history.
Nice timing Fox. Did you see this? Biggest surf in 30 years
They’re expecting the biggest surf in thirty years to hit Sydney beaches today. Wicked!
Also Mother T posted a link to youtube and mentioned this brilliant footage of someone riding a very big wave. As it starts, you figure, yeah, I could do that . . but in the end . . NO WAY!
Cheers.
HG
I caught that story HG. Great video.
I used to live right on McKenzies Bay in Sydney over looking Tamarrama. There were a few times when the surf was huge and you wouldn’t think it sane to be out there. Then you’d see some blokes head bobbing in the water, bodysurfing it.
Did you ever catch the Sandman on the ABC? Surfing culture at its very best.
Yes indeed. but strangely, I never really liked or appreciated him until he was almost done. Actually I think I really only started to appreciate Sandman after he hooked up with Flacco. And this was despite the chap being a friend of my sister.
Must say, I do like Sydney’s bravado surf culture - hate the boof head surfies mind you, but there is something appealing about the culture. I’m thinking long jumping duellers of Lavender Bay.
HG
Nice swells maybe, but if you’re looking for big waves, shouldn’t you head to Maverick’s?
Nice not to have to piss in your wetsuit sometimes. 
HG
If only I were a real surfer…
But you are, no? I read you got up on a stick in Bali, that means you are a real surfer and this whole wide universe is open to you. Brilliant, eh?
HG
A few years back I mentioned Mavericks to some Aussies when I was in Bali and they looked at me cross-eyed, “Yeah right mate, Bigger than the pipeline in Hawaii–sure mate have another Arrak ya stupid Yank.”
Having been to Mavericks many times while a student at UC Sant Cruz (Go Slugs!) I saw many an awesome wave (Planted safely on shore shaking like a chickenshit and looking through binoculars) the pictures don’t do it justice.
The Filthy Four are going to make a Mavericks stop on our moto trip cross the states. I’ll set up a Blog and take some photos in the summer. Wish I had a digital back when El Nino was tearing up the west coast.
Yes! Pics if you would!
HG
Lets not forget the Cortez banks…Possibly the best offshore break in the world.
Also in California 
If they were surfers they would have known. Here’s a piece written by Jon Krakauer in 1995, shortly after Mavericks was made world-famous by the death of Hawaiin surfing legend Mark Foo.
[quote]Mark Foo’s Last Ride
He rewrote the rules of big-wave surfing and turned it into a high-stakes, high-profile thrill show. So when the biggest, baddest new surf break started to churn out 40-foot waves last December, it was inevitable that he’d be there. What happened next no one could have predicted. . .
Word traveled quickly over the international surfers’ grapevine: Maverick’s, one of the world’s heaviest waves, was going off. Upon hearing the news, a trio of renowned big-wave surfers from Hawaii–Brock Little, Ken Bradshaw, and Mark Foo–hurried to California to join the local crew in the surf.
The names of the three Hawaiians are familiar to most of the five million surfers on the planet. . .
Foo made no bones about his thirst for fame or his strategy for achieving it: ride the world’s biggest waves with singular audacity, and do it when the cameras were rolling. That Friday morning the cameras were indeed present, there to document the historic convergence of Foo and his celebrated colleagues on Maverick’s. . .[/quote]
outside.away.com/magazine/0595/5f_foo.html
Or maybe they would be aware of the annual big-wave contest at Mavericks, with $30,000 in grand prize money (a guy from S. Africa won this year). Check out the video here:
surfline.com/video/vids/2006 … eotype=wmp
They were surfers 3 of them from Perth, it was 3 years ago in Bingin, Bali.
Two years ago I met a shaper from the west coast of Oz, in Bali. Same thing.
I might have one of the guy’s address if you want to write an ask him.
He rewrote the rules of big-wave surfing and turned it into a high-stakes, high-profile thrill show. So when the biggest, baddest new surf break started to churn out 40-foot waves last December, it was inevitable that he’d be there. What happened next no one could have predicted. . .
The place was well ridden by Jeff Clark for years and back in 1989 when I was there the line up was crowded. Hardly a “new” surf break.
WTF am I making this up?
You just don’t understand Northern Californian Surf Culture!!! :raspberry:
Funny thing is that West Oz surfers tend to have a better eye for the region, while those on the east coast tend to better know US and more broadly American breaks. Just one of those oddities of geography.
I’m quite sure I only heard of Mavericks in the past couple of years . . that quest for the biggest wave . . . .by . . . ?
HG
Ditto…
I lived in Marin County in the mid 70’s and Mavericks was being ridden then. Fairly local at that time, but there were always people in the water everytime I’ve been there.
Just a very very well kept Northern California secret…Just like the Cortez banks. Only difference was that Cortez wasn’t ridable until the advent of Tow-in surfing, which despite the public hype from Hawaii was also first implemented in California in the early 80’s.