Dane, coffee, pier, perfect repose.
Words by Nick Carroll
Photos by Jeff Flindt
While the Top 45 and their entourages trained, rode two-foot waves and waited for what’s shaping up as the toughest event of 2010 so far, something mean has been brewing in the background. And no, it’s not a fuckin’ SW groundswell.
Aside from the 250,000 chickens and 100,000 dogs, the Teahupoo/Taiarapu municipality has around 4000 residents, but on down days, you wouldn’t know.People are either off in Papeete at work, or hiding from the sun in some of the world’s most splendidly leafy backyards.
Most splendid of all: there’s no traffic. This little village was named “End of the Road” by the first traveling surfers for a reason. The road literally ends, right at the river which marks Passe Havae’s entrance. Nobody drives through Teahupo’o to go somewhere else; it’s literally impossible.
But this traffic-free paradise, along with the ecosystem of an entire valley, is suddenly under threat from a French entrepreneur’s plan to lay in a hydroelectric power station three miles past the village.
It’s easy to picture where the future of this area might lie. With road access across the Teahupo’o river and a big new source of electrical energy, the whole southern fringe of Tahiti-iti — a rarely beautiful part of the island which has only ever been accessible by boat — would become the focus of growth and development, and the End of the Road would become just another stopover.
The Teahupoo residents seem split over the project, with the local mayor backing it, but with a passionate resistance movement also ready to argue their case for as long and far as it takes. It seems, sadly enough, as if yet another battle is about to be fought over one of the world’s great surf zones.
SURFING’s Nick Carroll is all about this stuff; he’ll be kicking the tires of this story over the coming days. Meanwhile, The Billabong Pro Tahiti kicked off today and can be watched live here.
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- Lay-days are less prone to taking lives. Just pretty. Just Ben Dunn.
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- Two brus face the prospect of a long, beautiful, no-contest Tahitian day. They tear up a little.
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- From this far up, Owen Wright looks like an ant — not a 6’3″ surfing beanstalk.
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- Tahitian aquasculpture by Jeff Flindt.
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- The sunsets alone are worth a plane ticket, but the surfers have seen so many. They need a swell. Today, they finally surf.
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- Could it be Occy? It could! The man is a constant presence at Billabong events, even in retirement.
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- Duckdiving the days away,
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- Some surfers explored the island’s interior and were nearly killed by too much beauty. They recovered.
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- The region looks like Jurassic Park but — when the swells come — is slightly more dangerous.
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- Chris O’Callahan and Luke Egan on the surfer’s equivalent of a golf cart.
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- Tanner Gudauskas goes after some down-day peaks on the reef.
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- Jeremy Flores, straight out of Dwell Magazine. Not a bad spot to spend flat days, Mr. Gudauskas. Not bad at all.
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- Tanner and his bunking zone. Surfers will be hitting the hay early these next few days as the contest continues.
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- Dane, coffee, pier, perfect repose.
Related Posts
Update: Teahupo’o Under Threat
posted by Stuart Cornuelle / News / August 31, 2010
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32 Trials Invitees prepare for the rides of their lives in the Air Tahiti Nui VonZipper Trials
The Quiksilver Crossing Takes To The Air!!
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[...] Article source: Surfing Magazine | Downtime at Teahupo’o + A Hidden Threat [...]
Ok we love the ocean but are against a CLEAN RENEWABLE RESOURCE POWERING THE ISLAND???? does anyone else see the problem… Loose 1 break for clean energy or anentire ocean to the alternative.. (GULF OF MEXICO< IN CASE YOU FORGOT)