Wondering How João Chianca Would Have Fared At Teahupo’o? 

The saga of João Chianca has to be regarded as one of this year’s biggest storylines. 

A young, promising rookie qualifies for the CT, deals with a less-than-fair seeding system, puts on some of the season’s best heats in a range of conditions, and quickly vanishes from tour thanks to the mid-year boot. 

Not great. But the 23-year-old took it in stride. 

And yeah, yeah, we’ve been banging on about it all season.

Anyway, Chumbinho’s misfortune left many of us wishing we could have seen him surf a CT venue where he was sure to shine — Tahiti. Today, our wish is granted. João snuck off to Tahiti in May, shortly after the Manly CS event, and he’s got an edit called ‘Immersion’ to prove it. 

As he told Stab: 

“I was so excited because it was my first time there. My brother and I have always talked about how sick it would be to score a Tahiti swell together, but it took quite long to pull it off with me competing and him chasing Nazaré. We had some of the best moments of our lives together on this trip! 

Teahupoo was beyond my expectations. I enjoyed it until I was down to my last board. [laughs] I found it super hard to surf, especially because we had a big west swell. I think it’s one of the hardest waves to complete rides on the big days. I’m not quite satisfied with this trip — I want to go back there and paddle on bigger waves and make sick rides.”

We have a good feeling he’ll be back next year — most likely with a CT jersey on.