That was the best decision I have ever made.

I hooked up with my old friend Kevin Johnson who was born in Tahiti and is one of the top dogs surfing Teahupoo. This is also the scariest part of the whole story. Going to Tahiti I did not knew what to expect, my plane was to surf all the other waves and if Teahupoo was on I would decide in the moment if I was up to it.

So of course being in Tahiti a massive swell pops up, rumors of Laird Hamilton flying in, which is probably something you do not want to hear as long as you are not a big wave maniac.

The day before we get Kevin’s boat on the trailer to drive down to the end of the road and meet the beast, I was getting my 6”6 ready which Kevin said was too thin for chops and I was probably going to drown …an other think you don’t want to hear before going there.

Next morning we are on the road at 4:30am. The girls in the back and Kevin making up songs about my too thin 6’6 and making it a little more uncomfortable for me.

As soon as we get to the harbor the waves look huge on the outer reefs.

We launch the boat get in and motor off. After a little bit we get passed by the NIKE ski from Michel Bourez and a few others. The swell is going to come up fast and the boys are ready to tow (which would be a great excuse because its too big to paddle!!!)

The moment we got there we get a little greeting of a spitting 8 footer ….I sit down and look at the conditions, right about then I see Zephyr of the boat paddling into the line up where waves are doubling up and sucking all the water from the reef.

Kevin goes: ” No excuses now get out there”

So there we go no turning back. I paddle out and go for my first wave, the wave drops out and I kind of airdrop and make it without getting slammed or barreled around the wave and kick out.

Then I got the best waves of my life, just perfect tubes and the 6’6 worked great, it is a really fast board which gets me out of most of the barrels.

Later on the swell jumped up to 15 feet and Laird and the boys put on a show paddelboarding and towing.

Thanks Tahiti, and Gero for a great board and Zephyr for pushing me to go harder.