Gnarly Session at Mavericks

No, I'm not talking about freaky Sarah Palin...she calls herself a Maverick. But, that's not the side of Ur-anus I'm referring to here.

I'm talking about what happened in Half Moon Bay (California) this past week-end. Every Winter about 2 dozen surfers are invited to ride the gigamongous waves that form while crashing into the megabobulous rocks and cliffs. You can read about it here on the Contest Website: http://www.maverickssurf.com/wave/index.php. The San Jose Mercury News wrote about this week-end's contest in an article written by Mark Conley "Ultimate Mavericks: South African Bertish emerges from the epic surf with a victory." There are actually some really great articles written by surfers with all the amazing surf lingo which I recommend looking for.

Turns out one of the 50 foot waves hit the shore and injured a bunch of spectators.

So, "Mavericks" are ruled by Uranus and Aquarius. Saturday was a special day in that regard. There was a new Moon in Aquarius which was in conjunction with Chiron, the Wounded Teacher/Healer and Neptune, the Lord of the Sea.

The Winner of the Competition was a South African surfer named Chris Bertish. He had only a couple of days to get to California. According to the contest website the contest is held every year in the Winter but with only a moment's notice in order to wait for the Weather Report to state when the biggest waves will occur.

Bertish has a really amazing chart to study when considering the danger involved in this contest. Astrologers but Astrologers really need to follow him because, from the looks of it, people who read the waves know themselves better than people who read the Stars.

Right now the transiting Saturn-Pluto square is right on top of Bertish's natal Saturn-Pluto opposition. This is a great transit for embracing the demons, that's for sure.

Bertish has a natal conjunction of Mercury-Saturn at 5-10 Cancer that squares natal Pluto 5 Libra. Right now Saturn is on his Pluto and Pluto is opposing his Saturn! It helps I guess that he's going through an extended Mars in Leo Return. Leo rules Bravery.

Piled onto those planets, the aspect may fan out into a t-square. Bertish's natal Moon may be in Aries (daredevil) opposing natal Pluto! This shows a person with an iron will who has ruthless determination. Who the Hell else is going to be able to hold on to his board like that?

Burdish has a natal Sun-Uranus square aspect which is a classic aspect for a Maverick. He likes excitement and shock.

And, thankfully, he also has a lot of luck: Sun trine Jupiter; Jupiter rules NN; Jupiter squares NN. Mars trine NN and the current long Mars Rx Return in his sign can help dealing with impulse and daring.

Pretty interesting to see how signatures for caution are factored into his chart showing balance: he has Mercury conjunct Saturn which shows a cautious mind. There are no planets out of bounds in his chart and no defined chart shape. I wonder if that could mean that he naturally approaches each event as something new and as yet unformed. On the other hand he has Mars singleton in Fixed and no earth in his chart which could both show daredevil tendencies.

And he has Venus in conjunction with one of the Nodes. I think it really helps to think of one self in relation to the wave at all times in this vocation. Three time champion Darryl (Flea) Virostko also has this combination, different sign, that's why it stands out to me. Both men may also have an Aries Moon.

Chris Bertish
b. July 11, 1974

Sun 19 Cancer; Moon Pisces or Aries; NN 18 Sagittarius Rx.