Mavericks no-go is Mother Nature’s payback

Karma, as the French say, is a bitch.

And when it’s Mother Nature doling out the payback, you can bet it will leave a mark.

For the second straight year, the “window” for the Mavericks surf contest looks like it will open and close without a competition.

Mavericks guru Jeff Clark said in a statement Wednesday that, well, things don’t look good:

“Although we are hopeful, it does not look like the swell we need for the contest will show before the window closes.”

This unprecedented consecutive year of sub-par conditions coincides with the inaugural Mavericks Invitational Festival. For the first time ever, and for mostly legitimate reasons, fans are banned from the beaches and bluffs along Pillar Point this year.

Instead, brahs have the opportunity to pay up to $40 per ticket — and $10 for parking, down at the airport — to view the surf contest on a Jumbotron in a hotel parking lot.

To their supreme credit, organizers have taken responsibility for managing crowds along beaches. Rogue waves injured several beach spectators in 2010, a horrifying scene that couldn’t be repeated.

But completely closing the bluffs and all areas around Pillar Point to fans — and then charging a tidy sum for a remote, video-screen experience — apparently couldn’t go without rebuke from Mama Planet.

In place of this year’s contest, organizers are marching forward with the Festival. Unless conditions miraculously materialize, the Festival will go down Saturday, March 31 at the Oceana Hotel & Spa in Half Moon Bay. Advance tickets are $25, with tickets at the gate running $40.

To deepen the irony, all the biggest waves this year apparently reserved themselves for Gerard Butler and the crew of “Of Men and Mavericks.” A rough day on the water plunged the Scottish heartthrob beneath the surface in a harrowing, life-threatening experience last December.

Jesse Garnier

Jesse Garnier is the editor and founder of SFBay. A Mission District native, he also teaches journalism as associate professor at San Francisco State University.