Scenes from Teahupoo on the eve of the contest, Tahiti

(Above: Ace Buchan, by Ryan Miller/Redbull.com/surfing)

And here we have some scenes from Teahupoo this evening as the last embers of the day smouldered beneath the horizon. Above, Mr Ace Buchan, last year’s champ, steaming through the first of an aggressively-rising swell. And below, Mr Mick Fanning, a past winner here, finding his groove.

Ryan Miller, who gifts us the Ace cave, says: “It was pretty slow today until right on Dark. A couple of waves came through and a ton of electricity in the air. Clear your schedule for tomorrow as you won’t want to miss any of the webcast. Ace here, right on dark, caught maybe the biggest wave of the afternoon. He got lit up on this thing and cut his whole back across the reef. But I just got this text from him: “Thank Mill. Yeah I’m ok. Just a bit bruised and sore but I’ll be ready for a few more tomorrow!” Takes a licking and is fucking still ready to get after it in the morning.”

Dom Mosqueira, the man responsible for framing up Mick Fanning here, is more concise: “Mick was out there getting the feel for it, catching quite a few waves up the reef, like the west ones.”

Two past winners of diff stances and diff approaches, but when the code turns red or even just orange, we’re all equally at mercy.

Not to add any more hype to the already wildly perpetuated, uh, hype (for which we hold much responsibility), but if you miss a second of tomorrow’s contest you need a check up form the neck up.

Photo: Dom Mosqueira