You’re probably watching the Tahiti Pro right now. If not live, you’ve been looking at photos and highlights from free surfs, from the pre-comp trials over the weekend, from an absolutely mental two days of competition by the WSL’s elite competitors. So with all that in mind, you obviously know that the reef at the End of the Road has been firing. And we’ve all gladly consumed all things Teahupo’o in the meantime, which sets the table for a perfect moment to hit the rewind button.
“I’m kinda nervous,” Koa Rothman says before the sun even comes up. He can hear the waves and he knows it’s big. Exceptional even by Chopes’ standards. Sure enough, when Koa and Nate Florence worked their way into the lineup on a day the Tahiti Pro trials had a chance at running, they were greeted with all-time conditions.
Thanks to its unique setup, no other wave really has such a packed channel and therefore such a charged-up audience when things turn on. You can tell here that the crowd — cheering and hooting from boats, firing off cameras, screaming at every set wave to roll through — has a major influence on the surfers in the lineup. Even untouched monsters are greeted with a chorus of screams, and that’s pretty darn cool.
