Teahupo'o

It's, for me, it's like what does that mean, you know? What does it mean like giving a finger to someone when y- and grabbing your ball sack when you come out of a tube? I, I can't, I can't get my han- my head around that sort of existential experience, that sublime experience.

But when I see like Kelly, 54 years old, ride couple weeks ago at Teahupoo, let me tell you, riding on instinct, it was so uplifting and so inspiring.

Hmm.

And when I saw Gabriel Medina in the Olympics, he had one way of the, the technique and the rhythm.

What's the most terrifying thing you've ever done that you would absolutely do again?

Oh, that I would do again? Oh, well, uh, surfing Teahupo'o was pretty, uh, scary experience, but I would...

I'm super keen to go do it again, so that might be one of them.

Mm-hmm.

Um, I don't know.

That's a tricky question, but yeah, there you go.

Teahupo'o.

[laughs]

Like describe the scene.

Like we- we're in the hot tub, which is like 900,000 degrees at Teahupoo-

[laughs]

... on an island surrounded by sand and the sunset is going down, palm trees everywhere, and literally-

Mate, that's your wave.

And one of my dream waves to surf, probably Teahupoo.

Wow.

Yeah, man.

Yeah, that'd be great

... or like a surf contest at Tahiti, Teahupo'o, where you can sit in the boat and watch the waves come towards you, and watching a surf a wave out there, that would be another bucket list.

Yeah, so I can see you more doing that than being at a Super Bowl.

Yeah.

I- is there a bucket list destination you haven't been to that you'd like to go?

Um, not really.

Only probably that Teahupo'o what I was talking about.

Yeah.

So I, I like to ask this question.

How do you fucking develop the courage and skills for waves like Teahupoo? Or just big Hawaii- [laughs] ...

or Fiji.

All of, all the gnarly spots.

Yeah.

You've, you've been in those situations.

You see, Teahupoo's easy in a, a- in a sense-

[laughs]

... there's a difference between respecting someone and then being like, "Oh- ... afraid of, not afraid of them, but like being like

Like trust me, if I was doing what the kid at the trials did at Teahupoo, I would be doing, I'd be all confident going against Kelly and those guys-

Absolutely

...

Kalai Vaast lost to Big Al.

Now, he's no slouch at Teahupo'o.

No, no.

But I feel like he was just a little bit too frothy, and I think his, his comfortability and his, uh, his level of, I guess, yeah, wave knowledge at Teahupo'o probably let him down a bit there.

'Cause I think he thought he was gonna be able to beat Al on insiders, and Al just went out and waited for the big one, got it, and then from that point it kind of felt like Kalai was just pushing shit uphill a little bit.

Um, he did nearly get the job done, mind you, on those insiders, but I think he's so good out there that he was like, "I'll get two sevens sitting underneath Al easily" And he, he got two sixes, but it wasn't enough in the end.

If you go and look at any of his Instagram edits that he's put out in the last week, you'll, you'll notice why he's c- like he's top tier in waves of consequence on his back end.

Um, but yeah, massive missed opportunity here for him.