Chris Bertish Crowned Mavericks Champion

After more than three months of waiting, contestants and fans alike were rewarded for their patience with an historic day for big-wave surfing, as Chris Bertish etched his name in Mavericks lore and was crowned champion of the 2009/2010 Mavericks Surf Contest® Presented by Sony Ericsson and Barracuda Networks. With waves described by the competitors as some of the biggest they have ever paddled into, and in front of a crowd of approximately 50,000 fans, Bertish outlasted Shane Desmond, Anthony Tashnick, Dave Wassel, Carlos Burle, and Kenny “Skindog” Collins to claim the Jim Beam Jersey and a $50,000 check from prize purse sponsors Moose Guen and Jane Sutherland of MVision and Barracuda Networks. The total prize purse of $150,000 was the largest in big-wave surfing history, with $50,000 going to Bertish, $25,000 to Desmond in second, $15,000 to Tashnick in third, $10,000 to Wassel in fourth, $8,000 to Burle in fifth, and $6,000 to Collins in sixth.
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Save The Waves Film Festival Rocks San Francisco

On Friday night, San Francisco’s surfer and environmentalist communities came together for a very special event at the Victoria
Theatre: the first annual Save The Waves Film Festival, merging film, art, music, surf and environment together into a seamless blend of stoked fun and heartfelt love for the oceans.

Featuring the infamous Plastic Wave (barreled by plastic), the SF premiere of “Lost Prophets” and Captain Paul Watson presenting “The Cove”, as early as 6pm a line snaked around the block past the immigrants, pimps and traffic on Mission Street. Area hipsters in skinny jeans and fixed-gear bikes were greeted by a completely sold- out Victoria Theatre, environmental activists drank plenty of beer and “Save The Waves” shone hard in bright marquee lights high above 16th Street.
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Mavericks – $24 Million Economic Boost for Half Moon Bay

Save The Waves Releases “Surfonomics” Study on Mavericks Study concludes nearly $24 million per year in economic value at the fabled break

Save The Waves Coalition announced the preliminary results from its second “Surfonomics” study, a measure of the economic value of the world-famous big-wave break at Mavericks in Half Moon Bay, California. The study found that the surfing site and area has an estimated economic value to visitors of nearly $24 million per year, based on approximately 420,000 annual visitors.
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Mavericks Special Edition T-Shirt Produced from Recycled Plastic

Mavericks and Save The Waves Coalition announced today that a special edition “Mavericks/Save The Waves Collaborative” t-shirt – made from recycled PET plastic bottles – is now available. The shirt is the result of a multi-year partnership between the two organizations and is exclusively available at both www.maverickssurf.com and www.savethewaves.org, with five dollars from the sale of each shirt going directly to Save The Waves. Founded in 2001, Save The Waves is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and defense of the world’s surf spots and their surrounding environments.

Along with the sales of the shirt benefiting the coastal environment, this shirt is also being designed with an eye towards maximizing environmental efficiency and creating a low-impact product. Joao De Macedo, who serves as both Mavericks’ Environmental Manager and Save The Waves’ Program Manager – and who is the surfer who is featured on the shirt – explained, “To make the shirt, we worked with PLAYBACK, a clothing company that specializes in taking plastic bottles and cotton scraps that would normally end up in a landfill and breaking them down into fiber form so that they can be re-spun as yarn and knitted into t-shirts. Therefore, through the production and sale of these shirts, we are working to protect the environment on multiple fronts.” Read more

Life Is A Wave 2009 Coming to San Francisco – May 14th

Life Is A Wave 2009 Coming to San Francisco – May 14th

Save The Waves Coalition announces its third annual Life Is A Wave benefit event, a yearly celebration of coastal environmentalism through music, art, film, and community activism. Life Is A Wave 2009 will roll in on May 14 from 6pm-midnight, once again at 111 Minna Gallery in downtown San Francisco. The multimedia event will feature live music from several innovative new bands, including Bay Area heavyweights Bayonics, as well as the fast-rising Kapakahi – both known for their dynamic mix of world beats and highly energetic live shows. Opening will be Clif Bar Inc.’s own Dung Beetles, along with DJs M3, OmarEtch, and DJ Paul.

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