Teahupo’o Goes XL

According to most who have surfed the joint, Chopes is the most perfect (and we hate that word, but it’s true in this case) wave on earth. The same thing every damn time. And it can hold swells from two-foot to twenty. 

Over the weekend a swell fell somewhere near the middle of that range, at least in Hawaiian terms, with a 10-foot at 15-second SSW swell making landfall. The winds are called for offshore all day and the tides were extremely moderate, it was a day of paddle-in, but occasionally ski-assisted, come to Jesus tubes.  

The video above, filmed earlier this month of a similar-sized swell, offers some insight into what we might expect to rise up from the swell event over the weekend. Highlights include tow heroics from Raimana van Bastolaer and some crazy Italian man (Lorenzo Avvenenti), the paddle-in of the year from Matahi Drollet, and the brazen arrival of a 15-year-old tube fiend, Tahiti’s answer to John John Florence, Eimeo Czermak.  

Hit play to get the juices flowing.