World-class surfers often become synonymous with their favorite wave, Mr. Pipeline, Gerry Lopez forever leading that charge. But the way the surf world comes to associate a single person with one location is certainly different from Gerry’s heyday. Whereas one magazine cover could make an indelible mark on our memories just 20 years ago, forever tying a surfer and a wave the first time we put our greasy hands on a given issue, we now need clip after clip after clip of somebody to start seeing them stand out above the rest at places like Teahupo’o, Pipe, Jaws, the list goes on. All this is to say that when we see somebody continually snagging the wave of the day at a place we can’t get enough of in the modern era, it means something.
Kauli Vaast is that guy at Teahupo’o. There’s an entire herd of regular watermen in the Chopes’ lineup worthy of our praises, but there’s no denying the young Tahitian is one of, if not the top performer every time a notable swell runs through the South Pacific. And the circumstances of 2020 certainly came together for that fact to be undeniable at this point. With travel bans and restricted or limited access to Tahiti through most of the year, the best swells of this past summer were largely dominated by Teahupo’o’s locals. For Vaast, it was all an opportunity to stay on the home front and dedicate an even greater focus to a wave we already knew he was rising to the top at.
So let’s just say it: every time we hear the name Kauli Vaast, we think of Teahupo’o. And every time we know Teahupo’o is going off, we think of Kauli Vaast.
