Cleanup at Chopes: Judges tower gets barrelled.

Judges tower goes rolling down the reef at Teahupoo. 
You know the feeling. Looking at the horizon you spot a monster, it’s building fast and you know you’re stuck on the inside. Arms burning, you reach as far as you can in a desperate bid to make it before the lip throws.

Sometimes you make it, sometimes you don’t.

Luckily, the surfers in the Billabong Pro in Tahiti know a thing or two about spotting these things coming, and managed to get into the channel during Round One of the competition at Teahupoo this week. An absolute bomb rolled into what they call the ‘West Bowl’, completely clearing the lineup and sending the (luckily) empty judges tower barreling down the reef. Nobody had the foresight to sit wide and take the drop on the monster, so it remains a mystery as to whether it could have been ridden. Cameras were rolling, even a live stream was being broadcast so whoever had the guts to paddle in would have been met with some world class footage. But alas, nobody did.

With a few days left of surfing, the swell is still building for one of the biggest events on the ASP world tour. Check out the top five waves from Round One, including Nathan Hedge’s perfect 10.0 ride in the video below.