An estimated 30,000 people traveled to Half Moon Bay, Pillar Point Harbor, and Princeton-By-The-Sea to check out the competition at the famed Mavericks break at the end of January.
Peter Mel, of Santa Cruz, won first place. He decided to split the $50,000 pot with his six competitors, a Mavericks Invitational tradition.
Mel is a well-known Northern California surfer with nearly a decade's experience surfing Mavericks who helped launch the tow-in surfing movement here, according to competition organizers. He also had a win in August in Pico Alto, Peru, on the second stop of the annual Big Wave World Tour.
This video, now appearing on YouTube, was shot on the HERO3® camera from http://GoPro.com.
A Patch photo gallery of the competition can be found at this link.
