Tahiti is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Steep rugged mountains with sharp ridges covered in green fall down to clear blue water that lightly covers sharp colorful reef. It's dramatic. It's also incredibly frightening. The amount of energy filling the air and water is intense, and the places where those two things collide are powerful beyond belief.
Take for example one of the world's heaviest waves, Teahupoo (pronounced "Cho-Po"). Here swells generated in the Southern Hemisphere collide abruptly with shallow reef creating a wave that seems as if the entire ocean is rearing up, bottoming out, and then falling over onto itself.I visited Tahiti for the first time way back in 2000. I had only been surfing a few years at that point and was in no way prepared to challenge a wave of that magnitude. I sat in a boat for 8 full hours completely awestruck by the power of the ocean, watching boys get towed into life-threatening caverns, only to be successfully spit out into safety glowing with visible adrenaline. Since that trip, people often ask if i've ever surfed Teahupoo. Until this month the answer had been "no".
Paddling out for the first time I was admittedly scared to death. After all the photos i'd seen of the wave and reef scratches i'd noticed on other surfers I had a very healthy amount of fear and respect. But still, I wanted to challenge the place for myself.
There aren't any hotels on the far end of the island of Tahiti where Teahupoo is located literally at the end of the road. Visiting surfers stay with families and share in the communal experience of breakfast and dinner. The first morning, I was disappointed to only be faced with instant coffee. As a full-blown caffeine addict, my favorite part of the day comes shortly after that first sip of coffee. Instant just wasn't going to cut it. Fortunatley, I had packed some sample packets of Silver Joes coffee and my trusty silver mug. I brewed myself a little caffeinated heaven and charged out to face my fears fully awake and feeling alive.
I started out cautiously. I watched, I payed attention, I learned. Eventually I paddled for a wave, committed, made the drop, pulled into the tube, and slid into the channel with a big smile. I had conquered my initial fear and the rest that followed was simply fun.