Mavericks Surf Contest Laughs At The $75,000 Purse
January 14, 2009 – 10:37 pm PT by MeTags: Big Wave Contest, Keir Beadling, Maverick —
Just when you and the rest of the surf community assumed that the Mavericks Big Wave Surf competition had sponsorship issues, they come out with this news today.
Maverick’s Surf Contest organizers announced Tuesday that the payout for the big-wave surf contest has been doubled from $75,000 to $150,000, making it the largest known prize purse in big-wave surfing history.
The announcement comes a month after Mavericks Surf Ventures put the contest — tentatively scheduled for Friday — on hold while it sought out individuals and companies to help pay for the event.
Apparently, that is no longer a concern.
“There really is no amount of money on Earth that could compensate the guys for the risks they take out there at Maverick’s,” Keir Beadling, CEO of Mavericks Surf Ventures, wrote in an e-mail, “and I honestly believe they’d surf in the contest with no prize purse. Many of them have said as much.
“But, we are extraordinarily proud of the fact that — even in the teeth of the worst recession in generations — we were able to pull together and put on the contest, and even make some more history in the process.”
Mavericks Surf Ventures secured the initial $75,000 prize purse — the same purse offered at last year’s contest — in late December on a donation from Moose Guen and Jane Sutherland of MVision, a private equity advisement firm. On Tuesday, Barracuda Networks, Inc., a Web security company, doubled the payout.
Read the press release over at Mercury.
