"The entire book of big wave surfing was rewritten today." — Greg Long

"It was an honor just to be here today and paddle out with these other guys. I flew 36 hours to be here, and this has been a dream come true." — Chris Bertish

"These were definitely the biggest waves I have ever paddled into." — Shane Desmond

"There are no excuses on a day like today, it was perfect. Whatever you wanted, you could take." — Anthony Tashnick

"It was undoubtedly the largest surf any paddle-in contest has ever seen." — Dave Wassel

"I want to thank the people of Half Moon Bay for accepting me. This is truly an amazing wave." — Dave Wassel

"There is such a brotherhood in the lineup. These people are my family." — Carlos Burle

"Today took big-wave surfing to another notch." — Gary Linden

"You know what... Just to be part of that event, on that day was a privilege and an honour. That event has a reputation for the heaviest big waves over and above any other big wave event on the planet. To see Mavericks breaking at that size when on any other normal day would have been a tow-surfing day as it was so, so big and it was breaking so far outside of all the usual lineups we had ever surfed before. The photos that will come from that day and the waves that were ridden and the magnitude of how heavy the waves were will go down in history as probably the biggest waves surfed EVER in the history of paddle surfing. To say that you were a part of that event is pretty damn special, but to say that you surfed in it, made the final and actually won that event is really a dream come true, it's like a fairytale. I couldn't even script it better if I wanted to. It's one thing being invited to that event, it's a bigger thing to make the semi finals, it's a huge thing to make the final then it's absolutely mind-blowing to actually win that event in those historical waves. What more is there left for me to do? If I died tomorrow I would die knowing that I have done everything I had dreamt of doing in my entire life." — Chris Bertish

"You know this is pretty much like the Olympics of surfing. It's like winning a gold medal, so ... difficult." — Chris Bertish