The Voodoo Wave

The Maverick's surf point near Half Moon Bay, California, has long been one of the most dangerous places in the world to catch a ride. It is also the site of the Super Bowl of big wave surfing: the Maverick's Surf Contest. In The Voodoo Wave, Mark Kreidler takes readers inside the waves, inside the lives of the competitors, and introduces them to Jeff Clark, the man who first dared to ride Maverick's. Kreidler's riveting account of the 2010 season captures the jaw-dropping performance of South Africa's Chris Bertish—who bested twenty-three other surfers amid the biggest waves many had ever seen—as well as Clark's clashes with the contest's newly corporatized management. A thrilling account of the culture of high-risk, high-adrenaline athletes, The Voodoo Wave is also an amazing story of what happens when love of the endeavor collides with the realities of business in the twenty-first century.