Eimeo Czermak has surfed a lot of waves at Teahupo’o, but this is the biggest he’s paddled into. Photos: YouTube//Screenshot
Eimeo Czermak knows Teahupo’o well. He’s a Chopes local, and when it’s big at The End of the Road, he’s unnervingly comfortable. On May 7, Teahupo’o fired up for its first solid swell of the season, and of course Czermak was there.
It was a truly huge swell — almost too big to paddle — but Czermak stroked into one of the best waves of the day. The power of the swell was a bit of a surprise, since the storm that created it wasn’t actually all that big. But, as they say, it’s the motion in the ocean that counts, and this particular storm was in an absolutely perfect spot for Teahupo’o.
“It looks like it’s really f*cking big,” Czermak said from the bridge on the morning of the swell. “So, that’s cool. It’s going to be a really good day.”
When Teahupo’o is this big, it’s pretty much a guarantee that you’re going to experience a handful of terrible wipeouts on the hunt for a good one. Eimeo knows that, and this session was no different. He was on a separate level, paddling for waves that most would paddle away from. That strategy paid off, because after snapping his first board, he surfed one of the biggest waves, using only his hands, no ski, that anyone’s ever seen.
The channel erupted. “That was f*cked up,” said Tikanui Smith from a ski. “One of the biggest ones ever paddled, for sure!”
