With a monster low-pressure swirl rolling towards the West Coast, it looks like Mavericks could make a run of it either Friday or Saturday.  Forecasters are predicting swell in the 8-12 foot range, which isn't quite as big as last year, but still a good size for paddle-in surfers.  And with the announcement that purse is the biggest in big-wave history - at $150K - we're all anxiously awaiting the announcement of when the games will begin. 

On Monday, last year's Maverick's winner, Greg Long, told Surfermag.com, " As of right now, what I’ve heard about Mavericks is that they’re 70 percent sure it’s going to go on either Friday or Saturday, but it seemed like they were leaning toward Friday. But again, they need to get more information about what the swell is really doing.”

Surfline.com's Kevin Walls is hedging similarly, "For the Mav's contest, it looks like Saturday could certainly be the day -- with possible secondary options occurring on the following days, dependent upon the storm's behavior in the next 48 hours. While it won't be a giant swell, it will offer good size paddle surf along with excellent conditions and favorable tides, staying fairly low throughout the day."

Maverick's website hasn't commented on the status of the competition, but the waiting period officially began on January 7th with the opening ceremony. The surfers have been selected and drawn for the first 4 heats. So there's not much to do now, but wait and watch.