TAHITI
We have been in Tahiti for about a week now, and what a week its been! We have surfed our brains out, most of our sessions so far has been at a wave called Vairao, which is the reef pass just north of Teahupoo. Teahupoo is on the most southern pass of SW facing Tahiti and it tends to get blown out by the prevailing E to SE winds quite quickly. We've been down there a few times to surf it but was too "wild" the first time and then too small the second time. Josh ended up surfing Le Petit Teahupoo (small right hander on the inside of the pass). Trust me, you don't want to surf "wild" Teahupoo, especially not for the first time. The WCT is heading this way soon, so everyone is gearing up for the big circus. But the fact remains that of the shimmi crew only Josh has had waves in the village of Teahupoo.
We surfed Vairao overhead and a barrel fest was had by yours truly. The first part of the wave hits the reef hard, this is where you get barreled or mangled on the reef. My back is lacerated, but its a good feeling, its a great way of getting rid of eczema. One morning Andy and I did a 5am dawn patrol, surfing 4-6 ft perfection until we were toast.
The whole Tahitian wave set up is unique, completely unlike Indo, Maldives, Philipines. Here it is all about the reef pass. It makes so-called surf exploration SO EASY!! You just cruise to any reef pass with southern exposure and VOILA! Most of the time the reef pass is navigable so you can check the wave out from all sides as you drive through the pass. And many times there is a right and left on opposite sides. How kuk is that? However, the waves are not as long as in Indo, as most of the reef passes "curve in" quite quickly. Another huge bonus is that once you are through the pass and into the lagoon, you have an awesome and protected place to anchor, once again unlike Indo where you often have to drive miles to find a place to drop the pick for the night. And, many of these lagoons have 2 or 3 reef passes leading into them (there are 4 passes going into the Teahupoo lagoon), so once you are in, you just cruise inside the lagoon to go check out the next pass. Or take the dingy. Most of the time if you dawn patrol you will be on your own as the locals are not that onnit.
In French Polynesia you get basically three kinds of islands:
1. The young ones: The youngest are the steep mountainous ones like the Marquesas which dont yet have significant coral growth and no fringing reef at all. Very few waves here, only a few non-perfect rock bottom points; 2. The adolescents: Like Tahiti, Moorea, Raiatea etc, these have steep mountains with a fully established fringing coral reef surrounding a massive chain of interlinked lagoons. These are the ones you want. Now that I have laid my eyes on one of these islands I am just faarken blown away. Beautiful jagged green mountains, blue lagoons, reef pass after reef pass; 3. The old tops: These are your atolls like the Tuamotus. All that's left of the island is the fringing reef and a huge and often exposed lagoon. Often there is only one or two passes into these atolls, because of the size of the lagoon there is always a huge current flowing out, the anchorages are often dodgy as there is no mountain to hide behind (not like 2 above) But many perfect waves here too, its just that they can be quite hard work.
Another thing which makes the "adolescent" islands awesome is the lifestyle of the locals. They live in a long virtually uninterrupted chain (in Tahiti anyway) all along the edge of the lagoon which goes virtually around the whole island. Every single house is on the water's edge and almost every house has a slip or jetty with a speedboat tied up to it. Everyone just buzzes around on the water all day long, diving, fishing, paddling on their pirogue or whatever. Tahiti is truly a paradise, i can see why Gaugin went nuts when he arrived here. For the first time i feel really privileged and stoked to be on a yacht which is the only way to appreciate the splendour of the place.
Its a pity that South Africa is so far from here, as it is the first location that I have seen which gives Indo a full run for its money. The waves are generally shorter but more powerful, more intense. Not better, just different. It does not have the architecture or vibe of Bali, and the barrels dont go on forever, but believe me, you know when you've had one.
We were just up in the main port of Papeete for 2 days, doing some boat jobs, collecting our autopilot, dropping off our watermaker and doing a big grocery shop. We were on our way down to Teahupoo for a big 18 second swell which arrives tonight, but a 25 knot SE nailed us on the head so we had to enter a lagoon (with a perfect reef pass) further north to wait it out. Hopefully the wind moderates tonight and we can do the remaining 2 hrs down (calm sea estimate) to Teahupoo tomorrow morning. If not we will just stay here and surf the Maraa Pass which has a right hander like Bank Vaults (in the Mentawais) and a left like Kandui. The Maraa Pass is at 17deg44.934S, 149deg34.781W.
As I mentioned before, the whole surf exploration thing here is a piece of piss. Look on the chart, locate the reef passes, AND GO. Just head for the reef pass. If its a north facing pass, then go there Nov-March, if its south facing, then April-Oct. On Tahiti alone there are more than 35 reef passes, more that 25 of them have good waves. Its a no brainer. Another weird thing is that i have yet to come across a surf charter boat. Sure their are some, but this kind of surf tourism does not go down happily with the local polynesians. Most of them look like Jonah Lomu, covered in tribal tatoos. They have been super friendly, Polynesian hospitality is legendary, but i am glad i dont have a boat load of Mentawai punters on board. I would be stitching okes up and it wont be for reef cuts. Most of the traveling surfers here come in one's and two's and they stay with local families. So in this respect too its very different to Indo which gets overrun by obnoxious Jaapies, Seppos, Feral Ozzies and Brazil Nuts.
Its expensive though, no such thing as a 1 dollar nasi goreng. But if you stay with the locals and cook your own chow its fully do-able. Make sure you rent or have one of the 100's of local tinnies at your disposal on YOU MY FRIEND HAVE IT MADE.
The WCT arrives soon for the Teahupoo event, we may anchor shimmi down at the Teahupoo basin to give support to the BOKKE. I am thinking of painting a huge SAFFA flag on an old bedsheet and with shimmi parked right by the venue ... could be fun. Jarvi, have you got an email for Greg Emslie/Davey Weare?
So hopefully i get a barrel at Chopes before the circus hits town. Tomorrow it will still be solid, maybe a little too solid for my liking (what does 18 sec do at Chopes?). I really want my first surf there to be "introductory" as opposed to "post mortem".
Will keep you posted
G
