How good a neighbor is Mavericks?

I stood out on the bluffs north of the radar station from about 8:30am to 9:30 am. Even at that time, it was crowded and the coyote bush etc. was getting trampled. When I walked back to my car to go to work, there was a continuous stream of people headed in.

There is a tension here because the California Coastal Act requires local governments to protect natural resources but also facilitate coastal access for visitors.

The beach and the public roads that lead to it belong to everyone. That is why spectators cannot be charged a fee to watch an event like this.

Hopefully, in future years, the organizers will figure out better ways to handle a crowd that is only going to get bigger.

Five of these competitions have gone on since 2000. That’s a good deal of time to figure out a way to protect the seaside.

How can local authorities help the Maverick’s organizers manage all these people? Whose real responsibilty is it? I doubt that the private organizers have any jurisdiction or authority over the public coast.

So maybe some signage might help: Do not walk on the reef / Do not climb on the side of the cliff / If you fall you will die and/or take someone else out too. But I doubt it, not without someone to enforce it.

I’ve never been surfing or to Maverick’s during a wave, but I love that it’s there. I love the photos and videos that come from it. And I love the display of natural raw power and beauty. I suppose that small patch of coastside cliffs will have to suffer for it. Seems easy enough to keep people off the reef though.

When Mavericks started getting publicity and attention I thought it was pretty neat that a lot of people were finding out about such a wonderful place. However, the last two years have gotten totally out of control with far too many people impacting such a small and fragile environment. It’s also an inconvenience for the local residents that are impacted by the massive amounts of cars and disruption of their normal travel routines. You can bet Verizion and ABC’s bottom line is not the environment or the impact on the local residents. I would like to see a vast decrease in the number of people attending such events in the future, but it’s like the genie has already been let out of the bottle.

I would have to agree with Jack. We have lived on the coast for eight years now and this year was just ridiculous to the point of being downright dangerous.

Unfortunately we live in one of the main areas where people park and on top of that, I had prior appointments scheduled that forced me to travel out of the area and try to get back throughout the day, instead of just honkering down. What I found at the end of the day were empty beverage containers in my front yard, people running across the highway, five motorcyclists coming at me northbound in the southbound lane in Devil’s slide as they were trying to get around traffic that was piled up for miles, several accidents and ‘almost accidents’, an elementary school parking lot turned into a ‘mavericks parking lot’ with no space for parents to drop off or pick up their kids, while all along nobody really seemed to take control. In order to protect the environment and the safety of people there will need to be a new concept to get this better organized in the future, which might be very difficult with only a few days of notice.

The major sponsors of this event (who have lots of $) need to take responsibility for managing the event just like the X-games. This means signage, traffic and crowed control/security day of the event, and post-event cleanup/restoration. Whether they gate it and charge or continue to do it free is an option they can look at.

They could work through the permitting authorities. We had a picnic at a local private beach that the HMB police/fire found out about when we were advertising on Craig’s List for a lifeguard. They were all over us about getting a permit for the event. I’m surprised this requirement wouldn’t somehow apply to this event.

I agree with the person who commented that it is an amazing display of raw power and I enjoy seeing it. It brings HMB into the public eye (good or bad). But most of the time, these events can be managed to everyone’s enjoyment and protection.

I don’t know how to do it, but somehow we need to get the major media who have created the problem in the first place to also report on how bad the congestion/parking is and the environmental damage caused by a huge excess of visitors. I.e., discourage people from attending in person.

Personally, I looked out my window at how my street (east of SR 1 near Clipper Ridge) was all parked up, and decided that even though I could walk there from my house, I wasn’t going to bother due to the crowds.