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Some people can pick the exact moment in time, the turning point, when their lives changed forever. For Anthony Tashnick, it's not a point, it's a place. Maverick's.
Anthony Tashnick gets a big ride during the final round of the Maverick's Surf Contest in March 2005. Photo by Shmuel Thaler/Sentinel.
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By Julie Jag
Sentinel staff writer
For eons, waves as big as houses have caught on the reef and crashed onto the cliffs at this surf spot near Half Moon Bay. They have molded the spot, carving out a long point that juts out in defiance against the crashing waves.
Last year, Tashnick corralled several of the biggest and meanest of those waves and surfed them on his way to winning the Maverick's Surf Contest. The achievement put him in the ranks of the best big-wave surfers in the world, and he'll be back for today's contest, trying to defend his title against three-time champ Darryl "Flea" Virostko and 22 other chargers called in on 24-hours' notice.
But Tashnick's history with the big-wave break goes farther back than his win there last March. Maverick's put him on surfing's radar at age 18 when a photographer caught him there taming a world-class wave, perhaps the biggest paddle-in wave of the year. And Maverick's marked him as a future star when he first braved its icy, parking garage-sized waves at 16, becoming the second-youngest surfer to ride the break behind Jay Moriarity.
In many ways, Maverick's has molded Tashnick into the surfer the world knows him as today, just as its waves weathered the surrounding land into a point. In fact, had it not been for Maverick's, Tashnick may never have become a professional surfer at all.
"Right before that happened," Tashnick said of his first trip out to Maverick's, "I had started fading out and thinking I had to do something else. I can't surf my whole life."
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Like most great adventures, Tashnick's started with playing hooky.
On a sunny winter day five years ago, friend and surfing buddy Mike Brummet called him out of class at Santa Cruz High. Surf's up.
Brummet and Tashnick had been talking about Maverick's for months and Tashnick was eager to see what all the fuss was about.
"I just did it because it terrified my mom. I didn't really know," Tashnick said.
Brummet knew Tashnick had the skills. A Santa Cruz native, Tashnick had been surfing since age 6. He quickly moved his way up from Cowell's Beach to Indicators to Middle Peak at Steamer Lane. The goading of Tashnick's father, Bill, hastened his progress and sometimes pushed Tashnick to take on bigger conditions than he felt ready for. It also produced results. By 12, Tashnick could surf most any wave at the Lane.
Tashnick's mother, Susi, knew it was just a matter of time before he would want to test himself against the biggest paddle-in waves on the West Coast. And against the legacy of Moriarity
"I didn't tell him he couldn't go because I knew it was inevitable," she said. "He said he wanted to be the youngest one. He wanted to be 16 like Jay. My mother kept telling me, 'You're the mother, you can tell him he can't go,' so I didn't tell her. I knew he had a lot of people watching out for him."
He did, a rowdy bunch of surfing buddies including Virostko, Adam Replogle and Ken "Skindog" Collins. And of course there was, Brummet. Tashnick had special-ordered a new big-wave board in anticipation of their Maverick's trip, but Brummet made him promise he would watch from the sidelines or, if he had to, surf the break's smaller outside waves.
Tashnick eagerly agreed. Though usually unflappable, the thought of dropping in on a wave at the same spot where accomplished Hawaiian surfer Mark Foo died in 1994 made him nervous.
Once he glimpsed the mountainous waves, and the fun his friends were having on them, though, everything changed.
"I got out there and I couldn't sit still for 10 minutes," Tashnick said. "I told Brummet I wasn't going to surf on that first day, and I broke that promise."
But it may have been worth it. That day, the break exposed little of Tashnick's potential.
"The year he started paddling in up at Mav's and making a move at that, I started to notice," said Peter Mel, a Santa Cruz charger well known for his big-wave riding.
Two years later, Tashnick caught the attention of a larger audience.
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The sun shone as Tashnick sat in the Maverick's lineup for just his third session in two years, and fourth overall. He wasn't nervous though. These waves were a fun size, only about 15-20 feet. They had been, anyway.
A couple waves into the session, Tashnick paddled out to take a wave that looked to be setting up nicely. At first he thought the wave looked about the same size as the others that had been rolling through. But this time, Maverick's had sent him a steamroller. The wave continued to grow, reaching the size of a large house as it caught up to Tashnick. By the time Tashnick realized the wave's size, he had no choice but to drop in. He did, and a photographer caught it on film.
The next day, rumors circulated that the wave was the biggest anyone had paddled into all year. Tashnick knew what that meant ? he was a frontrunner to win the paddle-in division of Billabong's XXL surfing competition. The grand prize was $10,000 ? a nice paycheck for a high school kid.
"I wasn't getting paid for surfing and I was in high school and it would have been $10 grand," Tashnick said.
Tashnick didn't win. He never even got a chance since Billabong pulled its paddle-in competition that year. But the photo still gained him plenty of national and international attention.
"I think I would have been out surfing Maverick's anyway," after that, Tashnick said. "But I don't think I would be the same person people see me as without that one wave. That one wave just set up everything."
Suddenly, Tashnick was a hot commodity. Quicksilver offered him a sponsorship deal. Invitations to events and contests arrived in bundles from Mexico to South Africa.
Then came the 2005 Maverick's Surf Contest, when the break turned Tashnick into a household name.
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Tashnick isn't the first surfer Maverick's has weathered and shaped. Much of "Flea" Virostko's fame comes from sweeping the Maverick's title in the first three years the contest was held.
Last year, Virostko reluctantly sat out with an ankle injury. It made sense, then, that in his absence the break would reward the efforts of its protege, Tashnick, who on water resembles Virostko almost gut check for gut check.
"He keeps going deeper and deeper, which is legal to do," said Mel, Tashnick's tow-in partner. "He likes to catch lots and lots of waves. He's a very good paddler. And, he doesn't back down from anybody."
From previous brushes at Maverick's, Tashnick's fellow contestants knew of his talent and of his courage. This time, the break revealed his tenacity. Not only was Tashnick the youngest surfer in the lineup, he was several waves behind midway through the contest finals. But he scrapped for whatever rolling water he could find. As time wore down, he struck upon a winner and rode it to the podium.
A year after the win, Tashnick says he hasn't changed. His goals are the same as they always were: buy a house in Santa Cruz, go to college, work as a graphic designer. But he's moved out of his parents' house, been invited as an alternate to the Eddie Aikau contest on Hawaii's North Shore, and people in the grocery store stop his mom to tell her how famous he is.
And other things have changed. Heading into today's contest, he's considered a serious contender, no longer just a young daredevil. Plus, people are starting to catch on to his special relationship with the break.
"If it's his day again, the waves will give it to him, if not they won't," Mel said. "Tomorrow's going to be a day when the waves are in charge."
At Maverick's, that's good news for Tashnick.
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