by Matt Rott on 27th April 2017

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard anything from Half Moon Bay. After the Titans event went belly up a couple of months ago, Mavericks appears to have gone quiet in protest.

But while things have wound down at Pillar Point and guns being stashed for summer, one man is staying busy.

Compared to some of the old-time locals, Matt Cavaco is a relative newcomer to Half Moon Bay. He wasn’t born there, but when he discovered the sleepy little town he decided to make it home—and to make Mavs his main focus. Unlike a lot of the crowd out at Mavericks, though, Matt isn’t on a board. Instead, he’s part of a local crew providing water safety for the big wave surfers that test themselves against Mavs every time it breaks.

But things are complicated when it comes to water safety at Mavs. Half Moon Bay lies within two overlapping marine reserves, and the powers that be have decided to make jet skis persona non grata in the area—ostensibly because they scare the wildlife.

Skis are allowed in the water when the waves are deemed big enough, but “big enough” is something like 60-foot faces, which only happens once every couple of years. The fact of the matter is, water safety is completely necessary in the 30- to 50-foot range, but for now, at least, it is technically illegal. That is something that Cavaco is hoping to change.