Mavericks’ next generation

When he came home from his session, the questions started.

How was it? Who were you with?

Padua was a bit vague. A little while later he pulled his sister Sophia aside.

“He came up to me and said, ‘I have to tell you something. I surfed Mavs,’” Sophia Padua, now 19, said.

She said he came clean to his parents and the rest of the family about 10 minutes later.

“Mom was a little shaken up,” Sophia Padua said.

Three years later, Luca Padua, now a 16-year-old sophomore at Half Moon Bay High School, finds himself on the alternate list for the Mavericks surf contest, which will be produced by the World Surf League’s Big Wave Tour.

“The way I see it, it’s super cool to be on the list and I’m honored to be on the list,” Luca Padua said. “I’m honored to represent Half Moon Bay.”

The chances of Luca Padua cracking the starting lineup are slim. But whether the contest is held this season or if he gets his named called to compete, doesn’t really matter. He’ll still be out there surfing when Mavericks is breaking.

“I’ll surf between heats and I’ll surf before the contest,” Luca Padua said.

Mom is now on board

Padua’s mom, Wendy, was a bit apprehensive at first, but is more comfortable with it now. Like every parent, Wendy Padua simply asks Luca to tell her who he’s surfing with and for him to call as soon as he is finished.

But she also got an up-close-and-personal look at the wave when she arranged to ride on the back of a personal water craft to watch Luca in action.

“What gave me more reassurance was the day Luca ... arranged for me to go out on the Jet Ski,” Wendy Padua said. “I had some butterflies, but I was so excited to witness it. I can imagine what the draw is.”

Of course, it wasn’t until the final 15 minutes before she had to head back to shore that she finally got to see her son slide into a wall of water and it just so happened Luca kicked out of the wave about 10 feet from his mom.

And her reaction? Mom said she thrust both her arms in air in celebration.

“I watched with a sensational amount of excitement,” she said.

Just the latest in a line of young surfers

Luca Padua — along with the likes of Hunter Murison, Thomas and Peter Lundgard, and Michael Joshua — are part of the new generation charging one of the biggest waves in the world. But Luca Padua did not go out there on a whim three years ago. He had been preparing and training for that day for several years under the eye of Tim West, another Half Moon Bay surfer who has made a name for himself at Mavs and was the last Half Moon Bay local to make the contest, back in 2010. West had seem Luca Padua surfing around the local breaks and started training him for the rigors of a spot that can get 30 to 40 feet — and bigger.

When West called him that day, Luca Padua thought he was calling just to give him a heads up. When West told him he wanted to take him out, Luca Padua informed the family: “I’m going surfing with Tim.”

“That (first session) was interesting,” Luca Padua said. “I got a wave and it was like getting your first wave (ever). I was hooked. I was so nervous the entire time. You see Mavs in videos and pictures and it’s cool. But you see it up close, it looks a lot different.”

When he dropped into that first Mavericks wave, Luca Padua became one of the youngest to ever do so. Santa Cruz’s Nick Lamb, who won the 2016 contest, was 16 the first time he surfed the monster swells. Jay Moriarity, the subject of the 2012 film “Chasing Mavericks” and who died in a diving accident in the Indian Ocean, was also 16. Anthony “Tazzy” Tashnick, another Santa Cruz surfer who won the 2005 contest, was 16. Pacifica natives Colin Dywer was 15 and his cousin Travis Payne, who was runner up to Lamb in 2016, was 16.

A family affair

Documenting most of Luca Padua’s accomplishments is his older brother Dom. A su

rfer himself, Dom Padua, 17, has mostly traded in his surfboard for a video camera and under the tutelage of Powerlines Productions’ Curt Myers, who runs a surf-centric website, has taken to producing clips and videos of his brother — and others.

“I have reverse psychology (when it comes to surfing),” Dom Padua said. “I’m surfing

w

hen it’s bad and filming when it’s good. I just love getting in the water.”

Because both are in part of the surf community, it has opened doors for both of them. Dom Padua has helped Luca Padua get his name out there because of his videos, and Luca Padua’s connections have helped Dom Padua get his work in front of industry insiders.

“Right now, I’m doing something for Surfer Magazine,” Dom Padua said.

And Luca Padua credits Dom Padua’s work for helping to get a sponsorship from Quicksilver.

“I feel like we complement each other. I’ve noticed with Dom, when he get a sick-ass picture, it’s almost the same as us getting waves,” Luca Padua said. “I wouldn’t be where I am without [Dom].”

So does Dom Padua have any aspirations to surf Mavericks? Uh... not really.

“I’m going to get peer pressured into in the next five years,” Dom Padua said. “Right now, I can sit out there and it’s all good.”

It takes a certain mindset

No offense, but Dom Padua, who was part of a core group of players who helped lead the Half Moon Bay High School football team to three straight Central Coast Section titles and a spot in a state championship game this season, may not have the intestinal fortitude to surf big waves. Luca Padua said it takes a certain mindset to ride mountains of water. It’s not so much the ability to paddle into a wave — but to embrace the inevitable wipeouts.

“You can’t surf Mavericks and not expect not to fall,” Luca Padua said. “I’m at a point right now where getting hammered by big-ass waves are really fun to me. If you want to be the best, you have to enjoy the wipeouts.”

Luca Padua said last season he wiped out on a wave, “and took eight more on the head. Four right in the bowl,” he said, a euphemism for getting caught right where subsequent waves detonate.

But he was undeterred.

“I paddled right back out,” Luca Padua said, “and face planted on the next wave. I snapped my board in half, but if not for that, I would have gone back out.”

Just wants to surf

While Luca Padua may not get the call to surf the Mavericks contest this season, it doesn’t bother him. God willing, he still has a lifetime of surfing to do and Mavericks is not the end-all, be-all for him. Like most big-wave surfers, Luca Padua wants to surf all the biggies: North Shore and Jaws in Hawaii, Nazere in Portugal and Cortes Bank off the coast of Mexico.

And of course, Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in the Central Valley — which is a perfect, man-made right.

And if given the opportunity, he would explore a career as a professional surfer, but the reality is, Luca Padua just wants to surf.

“I get a kick out of any size (waves),” Luca Padua said. “Surfing is my passion. If it’s something I can turn into a career, why wouldn’t I?

“In the meantime, just keep my grades up and have fun.”