There are a more than a few local standouts when Teahupoo gets big. It is, after all, a wave that requires a deep knowledge of the reef and the what the wave does. That knowledge only comes from time spent in the line up, and Vetea “Poto” David, who is from Papeete, Tahiti, has seen his fair share of the backless beauty at the end of the road.
At the end of May, Teahupoo was slammed by a giant swell, and Poto was on on it. After he was whipped into a massive one, he set his line and hung on through what was probably the Most Unexceptional tube of his tube-laden life.