The Voodoo Wave: Inside a Season of Triumph and Tumult at Maverick's

by Mark Kreidler

Overview

“A finely crafted tale of the enigmatic world of big-wave surfers.”—Kirkus Reviews

The Maverick’s surf point near Half Moon Bay, California, has long been one of the most dangerous places in the world to catch a ride. It is also the site of the Super Bowl of big-wave surfing: the Maverick’s Surf Contest. Mark Kreidler takes readers inside the waves, inside the lives of the competitors, and introduces them to Jeff Clark, the man who first dared to ride Maverick’s. Kreidler’s riveting account of the 2010 season captures the jaw-dropping performance of South Africa’s Chris Bertish as well as Clark’s clashes with the contest’s newly corporatized management. The Voodoo Wave is a thrilling account of a culture of high-risk, high-adrenaline athletes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393342406
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/20/2012
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Mark Kreidler is a sportswriter and columnist who frequently contributes to ESPN.com and ESPN: The Magazine. He is the author of Four Days to Glory and Six Good Innings and lives in Davis, California.

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating, insidery look at what happens when a commercial entity, Mavericks Surf Ventures, attempts to turn a monstrous surf break into a big-bucks brand. . . . Read it now before Curtis Hanson’s Gerald Butler–starring, apostrophe-deleting movie Mavericks hits theaters next year.”

San Francisco Bay Guardian

ESPN: The Magazine sportswriter Kreidler (Six Good Innings: How One Small Town Became a Little League Giant, 2008, etc.) goes inside the sport and business of big-wave surfing, covering the 2010 Maverick's Surf Contest on the coast of Northern California.

Maverick's is a geologic anomaly. About 20 feet below the surface is a ski ramp-like reef that gathers waves and brings them to a height of 50 or 60 feet, with enormous concentrated energy. Very few surfers in the world are skilled enough to ride such waves. A self-described "big dysfunctional family," these big-wave surfers—with names like Twiggy Baker and Flea Virostko—will drop everything at a moment's notice and go anywhere in the world where the waves are good. Maverick's is perhaps the best of these surf points. Surfers had always come to Maverick's informally, for only the thrill and calculated risk of the ride. However, Jeff Clark, the first to ride Maverick's "liquid mountains" and generally acknowledged expert and guardian of the point, came up with the idea of a real contest with real money. He partnered with entrepreneur Keir Beadling, a marriage hardly made in heaven. While Beadling saw Maverick's as a brand, Clark insisted that it was the wave and the camaraderie that still mattered most. Only for a few short winter months might the waves be adequate for a true contest; if the waves weren't there, Clark could and would cancel the event. This made life difficult for Beadling in securing sponsors and underwriters, and the two soon parted ways. But the 2010 contest did occur, not without incident as waves wiped out the beach and the spectators and vendors gathered there. Kreidler expertly captures the personalities, flaws and strengths of the riders who challenged Maverick's, and with laser-like prose describes what it is like to face such a possibly lethal challenge. He also provides a telling examination of what can go wrong when an untamed sport becomes the handmaiden of commerce.

A finely crafted tale of the enigmatic world of big-wave surfers.

Kirkus Reviews