Word: banners
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...Banner has been told that the waves have come. And he is ready for Mavericks, the legendary surf contest timed to the optimal moment when winter storms push the Pacific's waters over singular underwater reefs to create enormous and deadly waves off the Northern California coast not far from Half Moon Bay. Like a matador choosing his cape before facing a bull, Banner, a contestant, pauses between two of his sleek surfboards. One is 9 ft. 8 in. and curved like a bow. More maneuverable, it will let him slash his turns across the face of the monstrous...
Most sensible men of Banner's age (he's in his early 40s) prefer to watch extreme sports rather than experience them. But nearly half of the 24 top riders in the Mavericks contest are in their 40s. It isn't really a competition for punks. Indeed, Banner sees surfing almost as a higher calling: "When I get out of the water, I feel cleansed, like it's what God intended...
...Banner is wiry, with a goatee and a quiet, self-assured manner. He is ranked just outside the top 10 surfers vying for the $150,000 prize, but having surfed this windy California point break since he was a teenager, Banner figures he knows Mavericks' moods and furies better than anyone. "I've been humbled out there - really blasted - so I try to respect the wave," he says. (See Hawaii's monster waves and the surfers they attract...
Preparing for the waves, Banner tries to center himself, to push aside thoughts that a giant wave could grind him against the spiky reef that a surfer described to me as being "like an underwater Manhattan, with all its skyscrapers." Says Banner: "Being mentally prepared is not having that stuff mess with you." He adds, "You need to feel lots of air in your body, light." He will wait on his choice of surfboard until the morning of the contest, when he sees the size and direction of the massive Pacific swells calved from a storm off northern Japan...
...Banner agrees. He says he could use the money. He clears trees and works in construction, giving him the flexibility to surf whenever the titanic swells roll in. But when he takes off on a wave, he says, "I'm not thinking about the money or the contest. It's about you and the ocean. It could be the end of your life, and that's what gives the moment its purity...