Riding High: South African Surfer Grant "Twiggy" Baker Takes Title After Learning From The Best
By Dean LaTourrette

2006 Contest Photos in SurfPulse Photo Gallery.

“I never could have imagined this, being from South Africa,” said an astonished Grant “Twiggy” Baker from the victory stand at the 2006 Mavericks Surf Contest, holding a check for $30,000 in front of hundreds of new fans. Baker was one of two surfers voted into the event via an online poll. “I didn’t for a second think I would win the event. I was just hoping to make the semi-finals. But I got really lucky and the waves just came to me.”

Came to him, indeed. The South African was the only surfer to score a perfect 10 in the contest, and he did it twice – once in his first round heat and again in the final. Throughout the event Baker showed flawless positioning and style, carving up the large surf like he was surfing on a shortboard. “Not only did I win the money from the contest, but I won Randy Cone’s surfboard,” said a smiling Baker, referring to his 9’0” gun shaped by Randy Cone, the smallest board in the contest. “He said I could have it if I made the finals.”

Baker was quick to pay homage to the regular crew at Mavericks, for adopting him as one of their own. “I want to thank Grant Washburn,” said Baker as he accepted his award. “He’s really been my mentor.” Washburn and Baker met on one of Washburn’s frequent trips to South Africa to surf Dungeons, a wave that has often been compared to Mavericks.

When Baker first traveled to Northern California, Washburn took him under his considerably large wing, and shared his unparalleled knowledge of Mavericks. “We call Twiggy a lucky charm,” said Washburn, “because when he’s here it always seems like there are good waves at Mavs.”

“Good waves” was a bit of an understatement on Tuesday, as the competition benefited from some of the cleanest, hollowest Mavericks in recent memory. “We couldn’t have asked for a better day,” said a weary Jeff Clark after the award ceremony. “It was just perfect out there.”

The contest featured plenty of surprises, with last year’s winner, Anthony Tashnick, and second place finisher Greg Long both getting knocked out in their first round heats. Three-time champion Darryl “Flea” Virostko, who was out with an injury during last year’s contest, also was ousted in round one.

That left the field wide open, and the gap was filled by an international contingent of charging wave riders including Brock Little of Hawaii, Evan Slater of Southern California, and Baker from South Africa. Rounding out the final of the event were Tyler Smith of Santa Cruz, Matt Ambrose of Pacifica, and Washburn, who lives in San Francisco.

To top off his already unbelievable day, Baker also won the prestigious Jay Moriarity award for the most courageous surfer of the contest. “Grant and I have been training hard,” joked an obviously exhausted Baker. “We’ve been at Tommy’s [Mexican Restaurant] every night of the week, and Mavericks every day.”

Judging from the results, it looks like the tequila and big waves mixed well together.

The Swell Cometh

Advances in weather and surf forecasting now make it possible to predict “Mavericks-size” swells well ahead of time. But what exactly creates these swells, and what are the conditions that cause a surf break like Mavericks to spring to life?

Swells are generated by strong storms that are often thousands of miles from shore. The more powerful and sustained the winds from the storm are, generally speaking, the stronger the swell and the larger the waves will be. The wave heights of these swells in the open ocean is one factor in determining how big they’ll be when they arrive at your local break, but so too is swell period, or the time interval between each wave. The longer the period, the faster the waves travel and the more energy they contain (remember your high school physics class)? The increased velocity results in increased power, but can also significantly boost wave height, as well.

This is particularly true at a deep-water reef break like Mavericks, where waves pass through a submerged trench offshore and are thrust suddenly upon a relatively shallow rock reef, creating what surfers call the "jack" effect. The faster waves are traveling towards shore, the more dramatically they jack up just before breaking. “Long period swells just contain a massive amount of energy, especially at Mavericks,” says Grant Washburn, who placed fifth in Tuesday’s contest. “When you add seconds to the period between the waves, you’re adding so much more power. The waves come up out of the deep water and hit the reef and just go boom!”

While measured wave heights from the offshore buoys for this year’s Mavericks contest were not spectacular, the swell period fluctuated between a whopping 20-25 seconds, an extremely long-period swell for the coast of California. “A swell that’s 8 feet at 25 seconds is shockingly bigger than one that’s 25 feet at 8 seconds,” says Washburn. “People don’t always seem to understand that. It doesn’t mean there will be 8-foot surf, but a whole lot bigger.”

Read more about the 2006 Mavericks Contest.

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2005 Mavericks Contest Photos by Tony Canadas (11 photos)