Review
WL Rating
At one point or another, every surfer has mind surfed some of the world’s most amazing breaks. You watch videos of places like Pipeline, Uluwatu and even Waimea, and you can visualize yourself racing across the face of the wave and being spit out in glory. But in the surfing world there exist some breaks that are so menacing, so brutally vicious, that you can’t even project yourself onto a mental version of the wave. For me, that wave is Teahupoo. In Tim McKenna’s beautiful book, you see the thick lipped perfection of the wave bending upon itself in a freak of hydrodynamics. That’s to be expected. But more interesting than the excellent pictures are the short essays by surfers like Laird Hamilton, Andy Irons, Kelly Slater, Shane Dorian, Manoa Drollet, et al. It is in these passages that you hear firsthand just how brutal this wave can be. Case in point, there is more than one recollection of severe, near death beat downs on a five foot day. For a skilled surfer, it’s hard to imagine that kind of power and intimidation in a five foot package, but that’s what this wave is all about. Frankly, I think that Teahupoo is a great gift for any surfer. And after spending a few hours alone with the book, I’m even more convinced that this is a wave that, for me, will remain unridden....even in my mind. (April 2010)
Teahupoo - Tim McKenna
