Mavericks Big-Wave Surfing Season Cancelled, Event's Future In Doubt

It appears the '19-20 Titans of Mavericks big-wave surfing season will be the fourth in a row with no official competition, and organizers said that they "haven’t yet decided whether they will try to hold the event next year," according to Nico Savidge of the San Jose MERCURY NEWS. The cancellation is the "latest blow to the iconic Bay Area surfing event that has spent much of its two decades in existence tied up in internal politics and stymied by not-quite-right conditions." The World Surf League has "held the permit for the Mavericks competition" since '17, but has "never actually put on the event." WSL Senior VP/Tours & Competition Pat O'Connell said that the company was "struggling to attract sponsors in part because it had to cancel the past two Mavericks contests when the needed combination of consistently huge swells and light winds never materialized." But San Mateo County Harbor District Board of Commissioners President Sabrina Brennan said that the "problems that led to the Mavericks’ cancellation this year were of the league’s own making, because organizers failed to get other permits they needed for the event." O'Connell said that the permits "were not a factor in the decision to cancel Mavericks" (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 9/2). In S.F., Bruce Jenkins noted it is "widely believed that a proper tour would include events in South Africa, Fiji, Portugal and Mexico." But "getting all that accomplished will take time" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 8/31).