The Top 6 Waves from the Billabong Pro, Tahiti (day 1)

The Billabong Pro, Tahiti today was just everything. The swell that everyone was waiting so excitedly for showed up, flawlessly glassed in the morning, and grew continually through the day with some crazy west bowls clearing out the lineup on occasion (one of which rolled the filmer scaffolding across the reef). And, the competitors really showed up too. No one pulled back, except for on the odd mutant that would’ve ended a heat. CJ Hobgood couldn’t get into one particularly fucked up bomb, pulled back and then rolled over the falls. The beating he took, and then bounced back from, is something no one should really ever have to suffer, but wore it like the animal he is. In their respective heats, Owen Wright and John John Florence both pulled into set waves with no exit and instead of ejecting, both stood tall and didn’t even pump, instead just waiting for closure – perhaps the most bossy-looking thing that can be done beneath a folding closeout of Pacific Ocean. Trials winner Taumata Puhetini, facing Joel Parkinson in round two, was holding nothing back and was fed a cringe-worthy whiplash midway through the heat. He was carefully loaded onto the jetski with his head supported in fear of neck injury, and stretchered to hospital. According to ASP reports, he’s stable but undergoing further a MRI Scan to be sure. Nathan Hedge took off late in his round two heat against Adriano De Souza, nearly fell at about five different split-seconds, somehow bottom turned in the barrel and held on with his toes to swoop through the day’s only 10-point ride. There was a whole lot of other stuff, too, which you’ll no doubt watch in the Heats On Demand. But for now, here’s the top six waves from day one.