When it shows its full force, Teahupo’o is the sort of wave that changes your life. Most people can’t handle that sort of energy, myself included — simply observing from the channel is enough to rewrite how you look at the ocean.
Hell, even photos do the job. Case in point, this submission from David Biner challenges the way we look at waves in a way that only Chopes can. The recent run of south swell — which opened the Tahitian season around the end of May with 20-foot bombs — brought out the best of Tahiti’s world-class tube hounds, plus a fair share of international visitors.
In addition to local heavies like Manakei Kahiha, Fijian wunderkind James Kusitino blew up the internet with his fully committed late drops and stylish fare. He also took his fair share of beat downs and broke multiple blades. Luckily, everyone made it out fairly unharmed.
David Biner @indo.eye
Kusitino, who cut his teeth on the slabs of his home country, has been on a steady upward trajectory for a couple of seasons now — but it’s his appearances away from home, like in Hawai’i, or here at the end of the road, where he gets go toe to toe with (and learn from) veteran chargers like Matahi. “Fully committed” isn’t an exaggeration. Even when taking back-to-back Teahupo’o lips directly on the head, he came up throwing peace signs to the channel. Unfazed, with a smile on his face as he hurried back to the lineup.
He certainly wasn’t the only one charging and cheating death and destruction. Eimeo Czermak is another perennial standout known for making terrifyingly late drops look like a casual affair. Things got real heavy when the tow-ins started whipping. Teahupo’o legend Matahi Drollet, no stranger to XL bombs in his backyard, put his experience on display with multiple rides that defy comparison to anywhere but Tahiti on its heaviest days.
David Biner @indo.eye
The pack was stacked, the lineup was stretched. The rotation produced the kind of heavy, sun-soaked frames that make Teahupo’o one of the most awesome waves on earth — despite, or maybe because of, how few people can actually surf it at size.
David Biner @indo.eye
Biner’s eye weaves through the gallery. There’s a way of photographing Chopes that captures the slab without capturing the soul of it, that turns the wave into mere spectacle. Biner doesn’t do that. His frames sit close enough to the action to register the weight of the lip and far enough back to honor the lineup — the channel boats, the heaving lips, the stillness that builds before the place detonates. He photographs the wave like he respects it, which is the only way to shoot it well.
David Biner @indo.eye
Scroll through, take a beat, and consider yourself fortunate that you have the luxury of seeing this place from a screen instead of in person, where the consequences are real and the margin for error is zero. For most of us, that’s exactly the right amount of distance. For surfers like Matahi and James, it’s just another day at the office.
Related: Teahupo’o ‘Dream Wave’ Swell Detonates With 20ft Perfection (Video)