Teahupoo 2010

Hello Internet Surfers,

                 The below has come in from Gav Clark our Ocean Dancer Surf Guide who works as a paramedic for the Billabong pro Tahiti.  After leaving the Maldives during an epic year the scene at Tahiti looks like a grim comparison.

Still it makes Teahupoo looks like fun, which is odd cause it usually looks like the open jaws of some rabid beast from the Triassic period (for me anyway).

Enjoy   

Hi All

Thursday morning here (Friday in Aus) as the sun rises on another beautiful day in Tahiti and again the contest is on hold with another call to be made at midday. It cannot get any tighter for timing as tomorrow is the last day of the waiting period and we still have a full day to run. Whilst we are in a beautiful part of the world there are a lot of frustrated people here with the waiting. As you are all aware the whole of the first week was flat and by the end of the week island madness was setting in, you can only play so much touch footy, throw so many rocks into the ocean and try to send the local beer sales through the roof Ha Ha.

Just to make all here feel even worse, word is out that there is a big swell arriving here Monday night and it will be pumping for the whole week. As Max Smart would say ” Missed it by that much” Ahhhhhhhhhhh

Also being out of the water with my knee for that week nearly sent me crazy as all the crew here went surfing at other breaks around the island. Finally got wet this week and had a surf out front and at couple of others at some reef breaks close by. Need a boat here as the breaks are a fair way out so I was lucky to jump on a boat with a few of the Pro’s.

Monday morning finally saw the arrival of some swell and the event kicked off and we ran 12hrs straight for two days in a row. The surf was not big but was clean with some great tube riding going down. As usual with this event the locals produced plenty of upsets and quite a few of the top seeds were knocked out.

Quite a few of the heats were decided in the last minute with guys pulling out heat winning waves. Of course Kelly Slater was one of those as one of the locals had him up to last seconds of their heat (Check the Photo) and he then he pulls off a heat winner and wins by a half a point.

As we go into round four we have only 4 Aussies left. Owen Wright looking good in the top half of the draw and the other 3 (Fanning, Buchan and Melling) in the bottom half. Some awesome heats coming up there as young Adam Melling who was runner up at J Bay is taking on Slater and just could upset him and then to finish off, Mick takes on Andy Irons and my money is on Mick with the way he surfing.

Well my friends that’s it for now as it’s time for beaky, but not before trying to kill the bloody roster that has been crowing outside since 5am. Its crazy as every rosters alarm clock here is out of wack as the crow non-stop except for at bloody daybreak when they are supposed too.

A bloke would make a fortune here selling slingshots, Hey !! I just realised that I have to come back to the real world in two days and do a real job, so can you please send money so I can open up a Big Roster chain here and forget life in the fast lane.

Hard at work in the Islands

Gav