Christmas came early at Chopes

All photos by Domenic Mosqueira There’s no gift quite like a pre-holiday swell, so Chopes lit up the past two days. “It was an early Christmas present that Teahupoo gave us,” lensman Domenic Mosqueira tells Stab. “And it came wrapped in bigger box than expected. The forecast was calling for eight-10 feet but it was fairly slow in the am. I swam out with Jack to get what I thought would be some fun fisheye and quickly found out that Chopes had other plans,” he laughs. “When Michel (Bourez) and Tika (Smith) and Matehau (Drollet) paddled out it started to get a bit more consistent. After lunch we all went back out and we were greeted by a good 12-15 foot set. It was scary because it was sucking so hard off the reef that it wasn’t easy to catch. The boys were going for it, scared or not. Michel scrapped into a square one that drew all the water off the reef it was insane. It was an amazing swell for this time of year and Teahupoo gave us the best present we could have asked for!”