“Substantially” You Can Purchase The Titans Of Mavs Assets For $1 Mil

Got an expendable million and visions of running a big wave event? Cartel Management hopes so and wants to you to buy the Titans of Mavericks surf contest and restore order to Half Moon Bay. 

With Cartel’s wheels unbolted and control of the contentious Half Moon Bay comp vacated—they filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Jan—the organisation is now entertaining other revenue opportunities. One such opportunity is the sale of the Titans of Mavericks contest.

Searching for a minimum bid of $1 million, Cartel plans to auction off their assets on June 1 at 10:00 a.m. The auction will take place at the law offices of Leven, Neale, Bender, Yoo and Brill. But don’t go booking hotel reservations just yet. Apparently, bidders are required to prove they’re financially capable of making such a purchase, as well as throw down a $50,000 deposit and submit a written minimum bid of a million dollars. Apart from a defunct website, overstock merch from last year’s comp that didn’t run and the opportunity to be Jeff Clark’s boss, presumably the big-ticket item Cartel is banking on is the five-year contest permit, but it’s not entirely clear what they’re actually offloading that. The language in their Notice of Sale is ambiguous at best. 

“Substantially all of the Seller’s assets related to ‘Titans of Mavericks’ are available to be purchased, free and clear of claims and interest,” it reads. Substantially?

“If you win the auction, by no means are you ready to hold the event,” Sabrina Brennan, San Mateo County Harbor Commissioner, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. “You still need a long list of other permits they don’t have…So the question is, ‘What are they really selling? And who would buy it?”

Even if they are selling the contest permit—issued in 2015 by Brennan and her peers on the San Mateo County Harbor District board—there are a handful of other permits required for the contest to run.

Nevertheless, where there’s chum there are sharks. Cartel founder Griffin Guess noted last week that they’ve assembled a list of approximately 71 prospective buyers, and “to date, approximately 10 buyers have signed confidentiality agreements and been provided with access to the data room.”

On a positive Mavericks’ note, at the end of last season, the crew of water patrol volunteers who tirelessly save floundering surfers from going through the rock launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise cash for much needed safety and rescue equipment. The surf community responded en mass. Originally, they hoped to raise $2,000. To date, the number’s closer to $10k.

“I want to thank all that donated to the Mavericks Rescue campaign,” says Frank Quirarte, who spearheaded the effort. “We exceeded our goal by double and because of that we have been able to purchase, three waterproof first responder kits, one oxygen tank unit, new wetsuits, radios, binoculars and radio harnesses. We repaired three skis and serviced two more. We acquired a trailer, extra rescue sled, extra batteries and some associated hardware for future repairs.”

Whatever happens with Cartel and the circus that’s become the Mavericks contest, it’s good to know priorities are sound when it comes to keeping surfers alive at California’s premiere big wave break.