Ski charges at Raimana Van Bastoloae's head : photo ASPWorldtour/Bielmann

Billabong Pro Tahiti Mens Event
World Championship Tour
Teahupoo, Tahit, French Polynesia

Mens Event
5 – 17 May 2005
Womens Event
5 – 15 May 2005  

Scores/Results/Photos etc  

*Detailed Ben Matson surf report at bottom of page.

Inches From Death: Teahupoo Explodes With Ski Shattering Force

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 02 May, 2005 : - - (Teahupoo Tahiti): In one death defying moment the heaving left hander of Teahupoo has displayed its full lethal potential to the worlds best surfers in town for the Billabong Pro Tahiti serving up monster 5-6m (12-15ft) waves.
 
As the world’s top 45 men and 17 women begun arriving at the small fishing village last night for the greatest surfing show on earth and the third event on the Foster’s Men’s World Tour, a major pulse in Pacific Ocean energy saw the heaving left hander of Teahupoo (Cheo-poo) live up to its reputation as one of the world’s heaviest waves.
 
In full view of the world’s elite including three times world champion Andy Irons (Haw), younger brother Bruce, big wave charger Shane Dorian (Haw) and the surfing paparazzi, Tahitian charger Raimana Van Bastoloer went within an inch of losing his life in one of the most radical surfing near misses ever witnessed. 
 
As the local goofy footer was towed into a 4m (12ft) morning set, his jet ski driver Reef Macintosh (Haw) was caught in the wave lip and unable to pull out, careering the ski directly over the pitching lip and into the path of Van Bastoloae. Pulling into the massive barreling wave, Van Bastoloae ducked at the last second, the abandoned jet ski narrowly missing his head and spearing straight into the shallow reef.

Shane Dorian : photo ASPWorldtour/Karen

“I saw a black thing out of the side of my eye, I just ducked my head and then I don’t know what happened,” said Van Bastoloer in his broken English.  “I saw this thing going and I was like, where is the guy driving on it, then I saw Reef trying to come up and we lost the ski but good thing I never lost my friend and myself, so it’s ok.”

Van Bastoloae who is renowned for charging some of the biggest waves ridden at Teahupoo has had is share of close encounters but rates today as the nearest he has been to facing death.  Despite the miraculous escape from a certain death Van Bastoloer continued to charge the line-up as the swell built throughout the day to be bordering on unbelievable by sunset.
 
“It is the heaviest by far, what happened today was the first time and hopefully the last time, no hard feelings, shit happens, you can still replace a jet ski but you can not replace your body.”

Irons’ was sitting in the channel nearby after witnessing the morning session from the relative safety of a nearby boat.  After arriving in Teahupoo late last night, the champ had never towed at the infamous left-hander before and the jet ski incident did little to dent his confidence, going wave for wave with the tight tow pack.

Manoa Drollet : photo ASPWorldtour/Karen

“That was the heaviest thing I have ever seen,” said Irons.  “My really good friend Reef was actually driving the ski and he jumped off, almost went over the falls and the ski went over Raimana’s head, he got barreled by his own ski. It missed his head by about six inches, it was psycho.”

“It was crazy, that was the first time I have ever towed out there and it was an amazing experience,” said Irons.  “The waves weren’t ideally perfect, it was a little bumpy but when they came through they were just so thick and heavy it was awesome.”

Billabong Pro wildcard Manoa Drollet (Tah) picked off the day’s bomb wave which many locals claimed was as big as any ever ridden at Teahupoo before.  The Tahitian trials champion enjoyed some heart stopping moments towing in with Irons. The pair will now face each other in the same arena in their opening heat of this year’s competition.

“I’m definitely feeling like all the jitters have gone,” said Irons.  “I’ve got Manoa in my heat and he is the hardest guy in the whole contest so if I get past him I definitely feel like I can get on a roll so I am looking forward to the start of the event.”

Ian Walsh : photo ASPWorldtour/Karen

Dorian, who flew in on the weekly Saturday flight from Hawaii yesterday with 21-year-old tow partner Ian Walsh (Haw), dominated the shifting line-up from the outset.  Charging straight into the takeoff zone without waiting for a set, the former WCT surfer scored three huge backside tube rides before anyone else had caught a wave. 

“It was awesome out there this morning,” said Dorian.  “We travel all around the world and we see so many spots, whether it be Waimea Bay, Jaws, Mavericks or Pipeline, we have seen it all in surfing and there is nothing that comes close to this place.  It’s so far beyond anything else in regards to intensity and power.”

Conditions are predicted to ease slightly over night with 2-3m waves expected for the beginning of the official event waiting period from May 5th. 

The Billabong Pro Tahiti delivered by Air Tahiti Nui is proudly supported by Von Zipper, Bose, Kustom and The Tahitian Surfing Federation

Swellnet - Air Tahiti Nui/Von Zipper Trials, Teahupoo - Surf Forecast
Saturday 30th April, 2pm local time *next update Sunday 1st May, 6pm*

*note - all days and times are local Tahitian times*

Current surf conditions:
*4-5' onshore waves at Teahupoo*

Key Forecast Points:
* Very large swell Sun/Mon
* Winds holding some form of southerly for the next few days, reasonable conditions but not perfect
* Swell easing mid-late week

Quick 5-day overview:
Sun: very large swell building in the morning, peaking in the 15'+ range after lunch, but winds are likely to be light/mod onshore at times (mainly SSW/SSE)
Mon: very large swell easing from 12-15' to 10' or so during the day, light/mod var winds, mainly onshore SSW thru SSE
Tues: easing swell holding around 6-8', variable winds, poss light/mod onshore at times but improving throughout the day
Wed: surf size holding between 6', occ 6-8', winds tending SE with improving conditions
Thurs: SE winds, 4-6' surf, conditions continuing to improve Longer Term: strong swell for the middle of the week, small/mod long-range SW swell arriving around Thurs

Bruce Irons : photo ASPWorldtour/Karen

Marine Synopsis/Prognosis
Residual WSW swell delivered a great day of waves at Teahupoo on Friday, but unfortunately the favourably clean conditions were replaced by the onset of an onshore airstream this morning. The automatic weather station at Tahiti-Faaa Airport shows a gusty southerly wind in the 15-20kt range, and recent Quikscat satellite data confirms the presence of a mid-latitude system south of the region (just clipping Tahiti).

An earlier incarnation of this system has generated a very significant groundswell that's expected to build in size early on Sunday, and we're looking at a very large pulse of energy for Teahupoo over the next few days. Wave heights should increase towards a peak after lunchtime in the 15'+ range, and although it'll wind down into Monday, there's a very good chance for some lingering bombs between 12' and 15' category at first (size should ease to around 10 during the afternoon. Unfortunately, conditions aren't expected to be quite perfect - the aforementioned mid-latitude system is stalling in the South Pacific, and it's like to maintain a light to moderate southerly wind across the Tahitian region for the next few days. Conditions shouldn't be too bad - the large wavelength will hopefully  override any major influence from the surface bump, and although there's likely to be some lingering cloud at times, there is no suggestion of any significant precipitation.

As this system continues to dominate the South Pacific over the next few days, we'll see a smaller but reasonably sized secondary pulse of swell during the middle of the week (Tues/early Wed). Surface conditions should improve from Wednesday onwards as the synoptic wind swings around to the southeast, but wave heights are expected to taper off simultaneously.

The longer term outlook is for a smaller spell of waves as we head into next weekend. The presence of the mid-latitude system in the South Pacific is expected to set up a semi-"blocking" pattern to the west, and this is likely to divert a couple of large Southern Ocean low pressure systems outside of Tahiti's swell window. A succession of cold fronts presently tracking beneath Australia have generated a new round of long-range swell that is expected to arrive around Thursday afternoon or Friday of next week, but they're expected to lose strength before passing south of New Zealand and the large distance between the mainland will reduce wave heights in Tahiti. However, there is a reasonably strong suggestion that this same swell window will fire up again later next week (around Friday), and this scenario would bring about a fresh round of new groundswell to Tahiti sometime around the following Wednesday. However, this will be better understood as we draw closer to this time frame www.swellnet.com.au

www.billabongpro.com

- Official Event Website - 

Previous reports:
# 1 : Billabong Pro wildcards decided as major swell approaches
# 2 : Coming soon
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon

# 5 : Coming soon
# 6 : Coming soon
# 7 : Coming soon
# 8 : Coming soon

More Australasian Surfing News available here
Check the latest Australasian Surf Reports and Forecasts

Further Information;-

Simon Barratt
sbarratt@billabong.com.au 

Mandy McKinnon
mandy.mckinnon@bigpond.com

Paul “Sarge” Sargeant
sarge@aspworldtour.com

WCT Contests - Surfersvillage.