Teahupoo for days - photo
The Long Wave Trough has a lot to answer for. Just as Victoria had an incredible run of swell a few weeks back, so is Tahiti currently enjoying a similar deluge. And it's all due to the fluctuations of the LWT.
Keenbert filmmaker Tim Bonython has been all over the Tahitian run of swell. First he took Kipp Caddy, Russell Bierke, and Sam Jones over to Teahupoo, but no sooner had he got home then he jammed onto a flight back to French Polynesia, this time with Riley Laing and Dean Bowen.
Yesterday, after one of the best days he's ever seen at Teahupoo - and he's seen a few - Tim cancelled his ticket home when he saw the ASCAT readings southeast of New Zealand (see last picture). Those are real time wind readings, none of those virtual prediction jobbies, and all the punter has to know is purple and black = good.
The stand ups in this gallery are Tikanui Smith high-fiving the spit, and Matehau Tetopata who paddled - yes paddled, no tow - into this beast just three years after learning to surf. Word from the End Of The Road is it was one of the largest waves paddled since CJ Hobgood in 2005.
