South African big wave tour surfer Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker won the Mavericks Big Wave Invitational last Friday in what were super challenging conditions. With waves in the 40-foot plus range, moderate south winds made the powerful west swell extremely difficult to negotiate.

Notching two perfect 10-point rides throughout the day, Twiggy a regular Mavericks charger made the most of his local knowledge from start to finish to eventually top Shane Dorian in 2nd place. Despite putting on a mighty stylish display of vertical under-the-lip drops, Shane Dorian was unable to find his way onto the biggest waves in the final and still found himself in a combo’ed situation by the end.

Other highlights from the day included Mark Healey getting caught inside by a sneaker set first thing in the morning, pushing him deep for a two wave hold-down (
Shawn Dollar air drop, Mavericks.

After winning the Punta Galea Challenge in Europe before Christmas, Twiggy now sits comfortably ahead of the big wave world tour rankings. There’s  talk of the next event maybe running at Todos Santos this week but in the meantime make sure you check the above video highlights from Mavericks.

Body Glove Mavericks Invitational

1. Grant Baker (Durban, South Africa) 29.33
2. Shane Dorian (Hawaii) 25.53
3. Ryan Augenstein (California) 16.66
4. Tyler Fox (California) 12.66
5. Greg Long (California) 12.00
6. Anthony Tashnick (California) 0.0