No thanks…
Photo: WSL / KIRSTIN SCHOLTZo
The WSL’s stop in Tahiti should draw exceptional interest this year as it’s likely the last time the highest level of competitors don jerseys there before hitting the Olympic stage. We’ll all see plenty of highlights from free surfs over the next year but the 2023 Shiseido Tahiti Pro is a competitive dress rehearsal of sorts but unfortunately, the August 11-20 contest window isn’t looking to light up any purple blob alerts. Still, we’ll all be watching because the End of the Road and Pipe are the only two waves on the CT schedule that are the true headliner when the league comes to town.
And still, whether the wave is 20 feet or head high, it remains one of the heaviest on the planet. In fact, plenty of people will tell you that Teahupo’o’s smaller days are some of its most dangerous, with the reef lurking just under the surface and a lip that’s somehow more likely to clamp down as you try to squeak out of a barrel. Keala Kennelly always comes to mind when thinking of Teahupo’o on its smaller days, getting dragged across the reef and surfacing with a crack in her skull, a broken cheekbone, and a scar on her face just millimeters from her eye.
“I took off and it had a bit of bump that kept me from pulling into the barrel straight away,” she said back in 2011. “I had to make some adjustments and then saw that the next section was going to throw, so I bottom-turned and parked it in the barrel. I traveled for a bit, had to negotiate the foam-ball. That may have thrown me off and made me have to draw a higher line than I would have liked. I thought I was coming out, but the lip just clipped me in the head and threw me straight into the reef before I even realized what happened. I think I was bleeding before my brain even processed I wasn’t coming out of the barrel.”
So how does the whole thing work exactly?
Even within Tahiti, which is littered with reefs, Teahupo’o is unique. A very, very long time ago (we’re talking millions of years here), freshwater flowed from the mountains and poured straight at the reef, eroding sections of it and shaping it like an arm bent at the elbow. That elbow plays a critical role in the shape of incoming waves. The swell’s direction will either turn sets into a nearly unsurfable closeout or makeable barrels but neither option is for the faint of heart. Unlike Hawaii’s North Shore, for example, there aren’t any outer reefs eating up a swell’s energy. And that means everything that travels through this section of South Pacific aimed at Teahupo’o will hit the reef itself at full speed.
So, there’s a little perspective heading into the next week-plus of competition at the End of the Road. Even if the forecast isn’t calling for much to write home about, there will still be plenty going on under the surface at Teahupo’o.
