American Surfer Passes Away After Teahupo’o Wipeout

56-year old American surfer Patrick Phillips has sadly passed away after a wipeout last week at Tahiti’s famed slab, Teahupoo. 

According to Radio 1 Polynesie Francaise, Phillips was surfing with friends at the end of the road when the accident occurred late on Thursday afternoon. Milton Parker, mayor of the Teahupo’o community, was quoted as saying, “The victim fell off his board, hit his head on the reef and broke two vertebrae in his neck.”

Phillips was initially rescued by another American surfer in the small crowd who was able to resuscitate him in the lineup. The waves were small and there was no water patrol out there. First aid was administered by surfers on hand and the victim was transferred to land by boat, and to Taravao Hospital, then transferred to the French Polynesia Hospital Centre (CHPF).

He remained in a critical condition before finally passing late in the evening of June 19, local time.

Teahupo’o is more famously associated with danger at size, and has been the scene of numerous serious injuries to heavy water specialists including Tom Lowe and Keala Kennelly. The last recorded fatality at the break was in 2000, when the young Tahitian Brice Tearea was sucked over backwards while duckdiving a big wave, fracturing vertebrae and suffering significant head injuries. 

The fact that there were no deaths here for 26 years is in itself remarkable, considering the insane consequence of the wave, the crowd, and the number of boats in the adjacent channel (a major emerging issue which we will cover in an upcoming article). 

Smaller days such as last Thursday are by no means innocuous — the wave breaks square on a super shallow inside ledge with little room for error or escape before the end section closeout. 

Our thoughts go out to the victim, his family, and the community following this tragedy.