Garrett Stand Up Paddle Surfing Maverick’s
Posted on October 25, 2007 - Filed Under Recent Trips and Sessions
Garrett McNamara STAND UP PADDLE SURFING Mav’s???
Kealii Mamala charging BOMBS!!!
Whether its winning this year’s biggest paddle wave, and best overall
performance in the Billabong XXL Awards, tow surfing holding a 16 mm
cam in death defying Chope’s, being towed into waves by a helicopter,
or enduring death defying glacier tsunami waves in Alaska,
G MAC and “The Hawaiian” Kealii Malama are in a league of their own.
You tend to wonder whats next???
Well, believe it or not Garrett rode his Stand Up Paddle Surf Hawaii board
through a crowded of at least 50 surfer at Mavericks.
Then two days later it was even bigger…
That day Kealii rode so many waves it looked
like he had been surfing Mavs his whole life.
Garrett was going deep and went over the falls on a monster. He got a beating that pounded him so hard he was coughing up blood, but just kept on surfing.
Quotes from later at the boat ramp:
A local boat captain “Kealii surfed incredible The
best style I have ever seen, and he rode one of the biggest waves of
the day!!!
Grant Washburn “Kealii Mamama is like no one I
have ever seen, comes from warm Hawaii, paddles out to cold Mavs and
surfed like he was right at home catching more waves then anyone.”
Garrett said “I Watched Kealii catch anything he wanted. He looked so comfortable
and confident. Hawaiian style.
We just like to have fun and let me tell you it was a BLAST!”.
Kealii said this: “Where ever we are Garrett is pushing the limits. That’s why it
didn’t surprise me when the Mad Man paddled out and surfed Mavs on his
stand up board. Our passion is new experiences, and this was one of them!!!”
Maverick’s Video on Surfline (Garrett gets one wave in this video)
More Glacier Surfing Video Footage
Posted on September 24, 2007 - Filed Under Glacier Surfing, Videos
Apparently, some people thought this video was a fake. Ryan went on TV to set the record straight:
Glacier Surfing Experience Explained
Posted on September 18, 2007 - Filed Under Glacier Surfing
Garrett tells us more about his experience glacier surfing on Surfline.com.
Except from the article: “Me and Ryan Casey from Deep Water Films were filming an Imax movie and he came to me one day going, “Oh my God, I can’t believe I didn’t think about this: we went to Alaska for the last Imax movie in ‘95 and when we were there shooting the glaciers calving, I saw this wave and I can’t believe it. You guys gotta look at it and tell me what you think.”
He showed me the wave and I said, “Let’s do this.” We went up last June, scouted to make sure it was doable — and I went and looked at it all and I was totally in !. You can read the entire article here on surfline.com
Glacier Surfing Video Teaser
Posted on September 1, 2007 - Filed Under Videos
Here is one wave from the Glacier Surfing trip:
Glacier Surfing: Mission Accomplished!
Posted on August 10, 2007 - Filed Under Glacier Surfing
Garrett fresh off the plane from Alaska: He had this to say: “It’s like the Empire State Building about to come down on top of your head, I’m glad to be home. That was the heaviest thing I’ve ever done in my life.” Garrett
4 minute Teaser video at Deepwater Films
Press Release:
GLACIER TSUNAMI TOW-SURFING SUCCESS
Hawaii’s McNamara and Mamala First Surfers to Ride Alaskan Glacier
Tsunami Waves
Honolulu - (August 15, 2007) - Hawaii tow-in surfing team Garrett
McNamara and Kealii Mamala have just returned from Alaska where they
became the first - and possibly last - surfers to successfully ride
glacier-generated tsunami waves of up to 25 feet. Their tsunami surfing
experience took place at Child’s Glacier on the Copper River, in
South-Central Alaska, located near the town of Cordova, Alaska.
Sheer ice faces of over 400 feet calved away from Child’s Glacier,
crashing into the waters below and setting off left- and right-breaking
waves that peeled across a pebble-bottom river bank for more than 300
yards, offering rides of up to one minute long. In order to catch them,
the surfers would wait up to several hours in the icy water for a
glacier to fall, then chase down the ensuing wave on their jetski and
attempt to ride with being injured or killed by ice and rock debris.
Video and still images from their adventure can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
alaska)
http://www.deepwaterchannel
http://www.bobridges.com
Despite years of towing into waves of up to 70 feet, and a prior scout
of the glacier last month, the experience turned out to be an
overwhelming one, almost sending the pair home after a series of highly
dangerous, unsuccessful attempts on day one.
“It was way more than I expected,” said McNamara. “I was almost going
home the first day.
“After the scout, I guaranteed that we would ride a wave - any wave.
After the first day, I just wanted to make it home alive. Not knowing
where the glacier was going to fall, where the wave would emerge, or
how big it would be. It was so different to anything we’ve experienced
in our big-wave tow-surfing history. I spent most the time thinking
about my family and wonderingif Iwould survive tosee them again. It
was in a realm all its own.”
The largest wave Garrett rode was a 15-foot face. Keali’i rode a 20- to
25-foot wave. The most memorable and unnerving moments came when the
glacier calve “booked”, or fell like a book off a shelf, landing flat
on the surface of water, causing a deafening eruption of water and ice
to explode into the air, and forcing them to make a run for their lives
with the assistance of their jetski.
“This has changed our outlook on big-wave surfing. In this case, we
didn’t even need a huge wave to get a rush. It was the heaviest rush
just sitting out there, dwarfed by this enormous glacier face, waiting
for the whole thing to crash down in front of us and hoping we’d
survive it when it did.”
As to the future of this new surfing spin-off? Perhaps take heed of
what Garrett, one of the world’s most daring surfers has to say: “I
wouldnt recommend it for any one. I won’t be going back. This is not a
new sport.”
A feature film and one-hour television show is now in production, being
created by Ryan Casey of Deepwater Films. Casey was responsible for the
discovery of the wave at Child’s Glacier.
# # #
To obtain footage and images from this adventure, contact:
Ryan Casey, Deepwater Films LLC
Tel: (858) 349-5634
Email: ryanmayrcasey@hotmail.com
For still images, contact:
Bo Bridges Photography
Cell: (310) 937-3764
Email: bo@bobridges.com
For media information:
Jodi Wilmott
Cell: (808) 258-8533
Email: oceanpromotion@hawaii.rr.com
Garrett Featured in “Wavechasers” by the Weather Channel
Posted on August 9, 2007 - Filed Under Videos
Garrett is one of the riders featured in “Wavechasers,” by the Travel Chanel. You can see 12 different clips from the show by clicking here.
Tahiti Monster Down Under Teahupoo Video
Posted on May 30, 2007 - Filed Under Videos
Watch Garrett and Malix get barrelled at huge Teahupoo:
Garrett’s Next Mission: Glacier Surfing ?!?!!
Posted on May 30, 2007 - Filed Under Big Wave News
Garrett and Keali’i are planning on surfing the tsunami-like waves generated by huge chunks of glacier that break off and hit the water.
This phenomenon was discovered by a photgrapher in 1995 when he was filming for IMAX. He was an avid surfer himself, and noticed the waves. He said the wave looked amazingly rideable and would peel for lengths of 200 yards at a time, but it looked treachurous, 20-30 foot waves breaking on a ice shelf only 18 inches deep. Deepwater films is returning to find that wave this summer, and this time they are bringing along extreme surfers Garrett and Keali’i.
We will be updating Glacier Surfing .com as events unfold, Garrett and crew are currently waiting for the right conditions.
Glacier Surfing Video Trailer:
Garrett Describes Riding Billabong XXL Wave
Posted on May 30, 2007 - Filed Under Interviews
In an interview with deepwater films, Garrett describes his love of big waves, and actually riding the wave at Mavericks that won him the 2007 Billabong XXL biggest paddle award.
Garrett Wins 2007 Billabong Pro XXL Bigest Paddle In Wave Award!!
Posted on May 30, 2007 - Filed Under Billabong XXL
Surfersvillage Global Surf News , 19 April, 2007 : - - What does a place called Pillar Point Harbor, a loner from Half Moon Bay, California, a white haired German Shepard, a Flea and a guy named Garrett McNamara all have in common? Something close to nothing, really. But hang with us.
In 1975 a kid from Half Moon Bay named Jeff Clark caught wind of a little know, ominously dangerous surf spot located just off shore from Pillar Point Harbor. Due to its funky shaped underwater rock formation, winter storms sent across the northern Pacific Ocean would come freight training in on Pillar Point Harbor, sending in 15-to-20-foot boxcar-size waves.
For 15 years, Clark did a masterful job of keeping the place on the down-low, only a few locals aware — and in possession — of one of the finest breaks in the World. In the March of 1991 three local surfers, having learned of the spot, decided to give it a shot. So did one of their dogs. His name was Maverick and the white haired German Shepard got so wound up on the 20-foot waves, he too joined the crew in the water.
Worried for him, they brought Maverick back in and tied him to the bumper of a truck. The dog had his day, though, and by the surfers had left the spot for the day, they had dubbed it “Maverick’s Point.” That same year, Surfer magazine published a photo of Maverick’s and it was on. Surfers from all over the world converged on the place to ride giants and tempt fate.
In fact the late but great big wave ace Mark Foo was killed there in the December of 1994. In 1999, a world class contest at Mavericks’ was held and won by a local Santa Cruz surfer named Darryl “Flea” Virostko (Richard Schmidt, Ross Clarke-Jones and Peter Mel placed second, third and fourth, respectively).
Which brings us to Friday evening, April 13, 2007 and a place in Orange County, California called The Grove, site of the BiLLABONG XXL GLOBAL BIG WAVE AWARDS. The epicenter of the American surf industry (make that global surfing industry), a few thousand surf enthusiasts made it out to the big hall — based immediately adjacent to Angel Stadium — to hoot, holler and cheer for the wavemen who had been nominated to potentially win Billabong XXX Global Big Wave Awards.
When one envelope in particular was torn open, a piece of paper removed from it, and the contents of that piece of paper read aloud over a microphone, it was declared that Garrett McNamara had won the Monster Paddle Award.
McNamara, of Haleiwa, Hawaii, USA was give a big oversize, make believe check for $15,000, his reward for catching, riding, and surviving a Godzilla-like wave at Maverick’s on December 14, 2006. (McNamara also won Surfline Men’s Best Overall Performance Award for the deed).
Later that evening in The Grove, Garret MacNamara reflected back on the day in Half Moon Bay, California that brought him international fame, glory and fortune (not in that order). “That day — December 14 — was perfect and glassy and the waves were at about 18-to-20 feet,” he explained. “There would be a couple of bigger ones here and there, but it was pretty consistent.
I had been watching guys surf there the day before and they were catching good waves, but I realized it would be better to go deeper and farther back into the bowl. So Vince Collier gave me a 10′ 10” the next day and I paddled out.
“I knew where I was going was dangerous,” he went on. “It was a place that you’d make 10% of the waves that came in; the other 90% would be close outs. So when I went out I told Peter Mel, ‘Hey, I’m going in where it’s dangerous. Watch over me, would you?’
So I keep paddling and notice that he’s taken his jet ski and gone off to the left. I paddled as hard as I could to catch back up with him and yelled, ‘Hey! I’m not messing around here!’ I wanted to catch a monster wave and was confident that Peter would be there if I got into trouble. I’m a wimp, you see.
“So I see this perfect wave coming, and think to myself, should I turn around? I thought, not yet. It was one of those glossy California waves and I wasn’t sure.
So the wave got right up on me, I turned around and shoved the tail in. The board stuck immediately and I made the drop. It felt perfect — like cutting butter with a hot knife. I was upside down and backwards, but in control. I felt great. I got to the bottom and looked up and wanted to try and make the turn, but I could see it was all about to come down on me.
I took a pounding, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. When Peter Mel came up and grabbed me, he was just freaking out. He was saying, ‘Oh my God! That was the biggest wave ever paddled into here! No, that was the biggest wave anyone has ever paddled into anywhere!
That’s it, man! You’re going to win every award there is!’ I told him to take it easy and tried to reflect on what I had just done. Everyone around was freaking out.’” And how did it feel to walk out of The Grove with two big-ass cardboard checks he’s try and cash at the friendly, local Bank of America?
“It was awesome,” he enthused. “I had no expectations to win and I ended up coming home with two awards. I mean the awards don’t mean too much, but it was real nice to be acknowledged by everybody.” Now typecast as a tow-in surfer, the ever-friendly and amusing McNamara went on to explain he was especially proud of the fact that he won the XXL Awards for actually paddling into a wave.
“I was definitely stoked to win Monster Paddle Award,” he said. “You know I grew up surfing at Waimea. I paddled in and surfed there my entire life. It was always a paddle spot, but the place got too crowded. So to get away from everybody I started to surf the outer waves. Because of that I think everybody forgot that I knew how to paddle. Tonight, I was able to show everyone that I haven’t!”
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