Every surfer has at least one wave they remember with more vivid detail than the rest. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the best wave you’ve ever surfed. It doesn’t have to the biggest. It doesn’t even have to be a good wave. There’s just something about the moment and the experience that sticks with you.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that wave came to Raimana Van Bastolaer at Teahupo’o. He’s one of the handful of surfers who is synonomous with the place, so it’s fitting. Raimana recalls a day when he was coerced into ditching a boogie board for a surfboard. “I went out, got a wave, took off, bottom turned, get barreled, came out, [and] one month after that I got a two-page spread in a surfing magazine,” he says.
If only the rest of us could make it seem so simple.
