January 12, 2008 Saturday

AT&T Park, San Francisco	Mavericks Surf Contest
10:00 am to 2:00 pm	20’ to 30’
High tide	Slight east wind
Sunny and clear

Lee, Kevin and I went to AT&T Park this morning to watch the Mavericks Big Wave Contest on the stadium JumboTron screen in center field. We sat in the first row on the first base side of the Club Level, which is the third level of the stadium, in the shade with a cold east breeze hitting us in the face. The view was great and the picture was big and clear. I read the next day in the paper that about 1000 people paid the $25 to view the contest at the ballpark. One thousand people spread around the Club Level, which can hold several thousand fans, looks very sparse. There was certainly no cramming of people together.

The contest was exciting. There are 24 invited contestants, which are randomly put into four groups of six for four 40 minutes first round heats. The top three of each heat goes into the semi finals, which is two one-hour heats of six contestants. Top three of each semis form the one-hour final heat. The contest started at 8:00 am and ended at 2:00 pm. Greg Long (19 from So. Calif) won, Grant Twiggy Baker, who won the last Mavericks contest in 2006, was second. Grant Washburn (40, San Francisco, 6’5” 230 lbs.) was fifth and Evan Slather, former editor of Surfer Magazine was sixth. 

Highlights: the judges rated the take-off and initial drops the most points. Winner Greg Long had two incredible straight-down, free-fall drops on 30-foot waves. The replays taken from a boat gave a great view of the size of the waves and the vertical perspective of the drops. Greg’s incredible drops were straight down free-falls with just the tail block of his board in the water. The nose of his board dipped into the face for an instance and then bounced out. Had the nose gone into the water another inch, the board would have pearled and Greg would have been launched into a 30 foot swan dive. The slightest edge makes such a difference.

In the final heat, there was a set of seven 30-foot waves and each contestant caught one with Greg Long and Twiggy Baker catching the biggest ones.

The viewing experience: the ballpark is a good way to see the contest, much better than watching it on the Internet. The ballpark management could do a better job. They had the Club Level bar open and only one snack bar; the crummy one that just sells Giant dogs and stale nachos. Prices were Giant game prices: $8.25 for microbrews and $7.50 for a Bud Lite. Hot dogs were $6.50, ugh! They did have the contest on all the TV sets inside the Club Level. Several fans sat at the bar and watched the TVs instead of the big screen in center field.

Here’s a management with their heads firmly planted in their anal openings story. The incoming breeze was cold. During the break in the contest before the final heat, customers began to drift from the shady first base side to the sunny third base side. Obviously, people wanted to sit in the warmth of the sunshine. View of the screen is just as good on that side as on our side. A female security guard began yelling at them to return to the other side. They didn’t move. She called in her superior, a heavy-set African-American, who could have been a bouncer at any bar in the city. He walked over and began eye-to-eye discussions to get people to move back. A few did it and then after a few had moved the rest got up and moved back. After about ten minutes, one young man (my guess in was in his 20s) moved back to the sunny side. Everybody else cheered. The heavy-set security guard began walking over to retrieve this runaway. The young guy got up and trotted down to the next section and sat down. The crowd cheered. The security guard started to walk after him, when he got close the young man got up and trotted down to the next section, by now he was at third base. The kid trots down to the next section, security guard goes after him and the crowd cheers. This continued all the way out to left field. Finally three other security guards entered from the left field entrance to surround our runaway. They walked him out of the stadium to a chorus of boos from the crowd.

Why did they bother? There was only 45 minutes remaining to the end of the contest. Let the guy go. No, they had to insure all fans were confined to the only section allocated to this event. Here is an example of the customers telling management what they want, and that is to sit in the warm sun to enjoy the contest. Do you think management was listening? We’ll have to wait until next year to see if they got the message.

There was element of this experience that really bothered the three of us and that was the incessant babble of the contest announcers. Constant comments just to be talking and saying nothing. How many times did they thank everyone for showing up? How many times did they comment on the perfect conditions, the waves, the sun, the temperature, the wind and the beautiful crowds? One announced several times that he was at this contest instead of being with his wife who is about to give birth to their first child.

Lee, Kevin and I had a good time but we vowed that next year we are going to Mavericks to watch the contest live just to be part of the vibe. That night I watched the local newscast about the contest. Then I learned that the finalists before the start of the final heat agreed to share the prize money. This is unheard of: athletes doing it for the love of it, for the pride and glory and not for the money. Sounds like a bunch of surfers to me!