The world's best big wave surfers, lured by the promise of clear weather and monstrous breakers, voted Thursday to hold the death-defying Mavericks surfing contest on Saturday.
Mavericks organizers have scrapped the contest two out of the past three years because of unsuitable conditions, including unseasonably calm seas last winter.
By 5 a.m. Saturday, leftover storm waves in excess of 40 feet should begin pounding the coastline where Mavericks is held.
Waves at Mavericks don't even break until the swells are 10 to 20 feet high. For the competition to happen, 30- to 40-foot breakers are needed.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/11/BAGN1C07CD.DTL