Back-to-back storms are lining up the California coast for a rare big-wave window at Mavericks, where a Pacific swell is expected to send mountains of water nearing 50 feet tall toward the famed break between one storm moving out and another moving in. The timing is tight enough that surfers are already on the move, and beach warnings are already in place up and down the coast.
For Clément Roseyro, that meant an early Friday flight out of Biarritz with three surfboards packed for the trip. He said it is a big mission to get there on time with all the gear, and he is not the only one trying to make the window. Bianca Valenti planned to drive to Mavericks on Saturday morning from San Francisco, while every serious big-wave surfer or big-wave filmer was trying to rent a Jet Ski and find a way to get out there.
The draw is obvious. Mavericks, about a half mile off the coast of Half Moon Bay and 20 miles south of San Francisco, is one of the most famous big-wave breaks in California. It fires off waves several times a year between November and March, but the scarcity of good days has only sharpened the urgency this week: there were no good days there last year, and only one really good day the year before that. Peter Mel called it one of the scariest big waves in the world.
The surf is being built by winds that first developed early in the week in the Pacific Ocean near Japan, roughly 6,000 miles away. Brian Garcia described the setup as if a train track had been laid across the Pacific and pointed straight at the coastline, adding that the wind pattern from days ago takes days for the waves to travel across the Pacific. That long travel time is why the window matters now, not later.
But the same swell that can turn Mavericks into a magnet for elite surfers is also dangerous for everyone else. Experts up and down the coast are warning ordinary beachgoers to stay away from beaches, and the danger does not stop at one spot just because the biggest waves are aimed at one reef. One storm is set to move on by Saturday morning, which is when some of the best conditions could arrive, and another storm is expected on Sunday, narrowing the chance for a clean, safe look at the surf. For the people chasing it, the question is whether the window opens long enough for the waves to arrive before the weather closes it again.
