Surfing
Watch in awe as Kai Lenny and Lucas Chianca star alongside locals and legends, and learn how you can contribute to help Teahupo’o recover from flooding that followed the swell.
Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere is when swell trains wake from their summer slumber and start to roll out of the Southern Ocean. According to Surfline guru Nick Carroll, this body of water is "the world’s greatest swell machine". Building up steam and whipped into a frenzy by strong winds, these swells don’t stop until they hit land, or in the case of Teahupo’o, in Tahiti, a shallow reef shelf that rears rapidly from a deep seafloor, creating some of the world’s wildest waves in the process.
As if on cue, in the last weekend of April, Teahupo’o received its first serious serving of swell of 2023. The world’s big wave fraternity, who've been forced to live life like regular civilians these past few months as the Atlantic and the North Pacific seasons have slowly simmered down, came from all corners to spill out of Faa’a International Airport in Papeete and and join the convoy down to a small fishing village at the end of the road on the southern tip of Tahiti’s biggest island. This is Teahupo’o, part-time home to the WSL Championship Tour, full-time jewel in South Pacific surfing's crown.
While Surfline predicted the enormous swell that hit on Sunday, April 29, nobody could have forecast what else was to unfold over the following 48 hours. The usual suspects such as Kai Lenny, Lucas ‘Chumbo’ Chianca and Matahi Drollet were doing their thing alongside local stalwarts like Kevin Bourez, Lorenzo Avvenenti, Tikanui Smith and Vahine Fierro, while eternal swell chasers Russell Bierke, Billy Kemper and Nate Florence also flocked in from all corners.
The swell didn't quite hit the all-time heights hoped for, but Eimeo Czermak and Tucker Wooding broke the internet with a hall of fame drone clip (above) that needs to be seen to be believed, Summa Longbottom and Annie Dos Santos upped the ante and took the female big wave game to new heights, while paddle and tow surfers co-existed in the same line-up like we’ve never seen before.
Tragically, the town of Teahupo’o flooded in the aftermath of the swell. As a result, surfers who've long enjoyed this special corner of the world signed up en masse to join local recovery efforts and help put the village back on its feet.
"A perfect day is followed by disaster," said Carroll. "The knife's edge has never seemed more real. The village now needs all the help it can get, but with everyone's help it will recover, and there will be another perfect day."
After you enjoy the clip above, we hope you'll consider contributing to an appeal set up to give back to Teahupo'o – a town that’s given surfing so much – in its greatest hour of need. You can donate to recovery efforts here.
