Last week we decided to pack up the bags and head over to Tahiti for what looked like a solid 8 foot swell. Packing our boards with overly excited conversations of standing in 8 foot tubes, Conner and I got the final call that we were on the 4:30 pm Air Tahiti Nui flight to Papeete, Tahiti with Beau Foster, Luke Davis, Nick Rozsa, Zak Noyle, Janna Irons from Surfer Mag, and Shea Perkins from Reef. We were going to stay at Raimana’s house for a full week in seek of massive barrels. Once we landed and started the short one hour drive to Raimana’s house, expectations were unknown. I remember thinking, “Oh man, it could be really big and really dangerous tomorrow. I hope the day goes ok.” Finally, we got settled in and fell asleep. At dawn, the whole group jumped out of bed and sprinted to the board bags to anxiously unpack our boards and get in the water. Sadly, the waves were still two feet. We ended up surfing this rippable little right down the reef, but it was no Chopes. As the trip went on, we got fun waves, but the predicted swell never really showed up. However, we were surfing these flawless head-high barrels at Chopes looking around at the humongous green mountains just laughing. For Tahiti standards, we didn’t score, but in all of our minds we were having the times of our lives. Laughing as we were watching eachother get blown out of perfect waves. I have no doubt in my mind that we will go back, and yes, one day we will score. Until then, check out this video of our amazing time in Tahiti thanks to REEF and especially Raimana’s family. They were the most hospitable hosts to our rather large group of hungry frothing surfers. Maruru Tahiti!
