“Oh, I can win this thing. I just gotta get past Jack Robinson first.” – Kelly Slater, 54 years old.
In case you slept under a rock today, Teahupoo was absolutely insane. One of the most entertaining days of professional surfing in recent memory. 11 Heats ran, 15 excellent waves were ridden, Griffin nearly went perfect and Kelly Slater continues to defy the established rules of age and sport.
The story coming in was how Kelly had ‘bought his way into the event’, because his brand Outerknown is an event sponsor. While I do believe it’s true – the idea that he could have given the Wildcard spot to a surfer that he sponsored, or the WSL could have given the spot to another local Wildcard, Kelly has quickly put an end to any doubt that he belongs in this event. He’s already eliminated two serious tube hounds in Eli Hanneman and event favorite Gabriel Medina, in style, dropping a 19.06 Heat Total on freshly married Medina’s head today.
The End Of The Road, as they call Teahupoo, was unruly the last few days, and today was no different. By no means perfect, hardly even great, the still photos play a real trick on the viewer. It was massive and dangerous. With howling sideshore winds came chandeliers and clamping end sections, however, as Jeremy Flores put it – the wave gets so hollow that the wind really isn’t as much of a factor as you’d think.
It took a few Heats for everyone to get it figured out. Italo beat Luke Thompson in a slow one to start the day, the South African not putting together even 2 points in total. Liam O’Brien then beat the US Open winner Jake Marshall with neither getting into double digit Heat Totals. After this, things got good.
Ethan Ewing really proved himself in the next Heat(8), to me at least. I know that he had his injury (broken back) out at this wave a few years ago, and I know he has spent some time there getting over that. Still, I do not think of backhand tubes as a strong suit of his. Also, Joel Vaughan will charge. This was not an easy draw, and Vaughan put up a respectable 12.33 Heat Total, but Ethan had enough to get him on an 8, and a 6.17 (14.17). If you compare Ewing’s 8 to some of the rides later in the day, the score doesn’t go that high. It was definitely the best ride of the morning to that point though, and the conditions were difficult. That specific wave had a warble and a lump that did not look familiar to Teahupoo. He made it look easy to ride, and I understood that score at that point of the day.
In Heat 9 was two best friends squaring off – Ramzi vs Gold Jersey donning Leonardo Fiorivanti. They surfed this Heat like best friends. Jostling and battling for positioning, they paddled themselves way too far up the reef to catch anything meaningful, fighting for the first wave of the Heat. There was a slight paddle by both of them, but no block was called, so there was no priority established. They got a Heat restart after no waves were ridden for the first 10 (maybe 15) minutes, which I thought was an interesting call. The judge can deem that there were rideable waves, and opt not to give a restart, which is what I felt would have been applicable. Anyways; Ramzi just straight up beat Leo. He got the better of both exchanges, and he found the first West bowl I had seen of the day. It’s interesting how much different those waves look than the rest. Rather than being a stretched out, long wave that runs down the reef, this one bends and stands straight up and down taller than the rest, and once it hits near the end of the reef it almost shoulders off on itself down the line, rather than clamping down and spitting its guts out. Leo surfed well, but Ramzi looked a bit more committed, and the Moroccan moves on.
Joao Chianca vs Morgan Ciblic was, unexpectedly, a great Heat. Morgan fucking sent it with everything he had. An honor that 3 time World Champion Filipe Toledo will never have. Morgs would have made every other Heat to this point, but he ran into a bit of a madman in Joao Chianca. Morg’s valiant effort will not go unnoticed, – a 15.90 Heat Total is something to be proud of. Sometimes I forget that Joao’s brother is one of the gnarliest chargers in the world (Chumbo), and he surely shares at least a little bit of that trait. He’s great at Pipe. He’a obviously gnarly here; he sent himself right under the ledge on two longer, stretched out waves netting an 8.33 and a 9.50 (17.83). He is an underdog to take this event out.
Kanoa and Alejo Muniz had an absolute snoozer in Heat 11. A bit of a shame after what we had seen in the last two, even three heats. Not that I blame him, but Kanoa looked scared, and Alejo got lucky early in the Heat. He will lose in the next round.
Back to some pretty good action. Cole Houshmand took one of the gnarlier wipeouts of the day. I think he fell straight on top of his board? Heavy stuff. That was after already taking a beating from having to straighten out on his first wave. He then got caught inside, completely punished, and picked up by the Tahitian rescue team on the ski. He finally got a good one under his belt for a 7, but it was a bit late. George Pittar already had him in a combo situation. There were still 15 minutes on the clock, but GP got priority out the back. The ocean went quiet and started to clean up in just the slightest for the magic that was about to go down in the next Heat..
Round 2, Heat 13 at the 2026 OuterKnown Tahiti Pro will go down as one of the all time classic Heats in the annals of competitive Surfing History. 54 year old, 11 time World Champ, Greatest (surfer) Of All Time Kelly Slater, versus in-his-prime, 32 year old, three time World Champ Gabriel Medina. Thumping, messy, giant, unruly Teahupoo.
As previously mentioned, Kelly beat Eli Hanneman in an entertaining, albeit, one sided Round 1 matchup. He had some time in the lineup already. Not that Medina hadn’t – I’m sure he got a few pre-event, but I think having a clear gameplan and idea of what he was going to do paid dividends for Kelly. You wouldn’t have known it early on.
Kelly Slater, at 54 years old, had two early falls that would have put 99.9% of average surfers back on the boat for the remainder of the day. Nearly 15 minutes into the Heat, just as Medina was about to put Slater in a small combo headlock (waiting for his score), Kelly nonchalantly sneaks into and out of a 7 point ride – the highest of the heat so far – and nabs priority out the back to boot. As we’re awaiting this score (and a 4.83 for Medina), Gabe forces Kelly’s hand with priority and he free fall jumps from the lipline of a solid 10, maybe 12 footer. Broken leash, broken board, Kelly swims over to the channel to grab a new stick, back into the lineup and under priority, immediately snags this unbelievable under the lip air drop, no hand bottom turn, 9.73. This wave will never be forgotten. 54 years old, ladies and gentlemen. The Greatest to ever do it.
This put Gabe in combo situation with 17 minutes remaining. Medina, to his credit, did well to fight back, breaking out of combo by clinging to the wall like a cat for a “longer” tube ride that landed a 7.67. Clean entry, clean exit, but nowhere near as critical as what Kelly had just done. This put Gabriel in the Heat, but he needed a 9.07, and Kelly had priority. Just over 7 minutes on the clock and Kelly uses that prio to put Gabe away. A much smoother entry than his last, but slotted high, tight, and deep in the tube, Kelly threads through an extended pig dog for another 9(.33), saluting the boats in the channel on the way out.
With under 5 minutes remaining, Gabe nabs his best number of the Heat – an 8.43 for a long, stretched out runner tube ride that I am sure was a nice consolation prize. Maybe not that nice though. Kelly said both he and Medina were crying in the lineup after he combo’d the Brazilian – 19.06 to 16.10. Incredible, absolute fairy-tale stuff from Kelly Slater. I hope he wins the damn thing now.
By this point in the day, the lineup had sorted itself out a bit and there were some good looking waves. Still chandeliering, still clamping here and there, but it looked much cleaner than it had been. In the next Heat (14) we had a really interesting clash between Callum Robson and Jack Robinson. Both heavy chargers, but Robbo being the highly touted ‘Vortex Shaman’ had to be the favorite. Both surfers getting absolutely kegged on the first proper exchange, Jack narrowly gets the advantage – 9.70 to Callum’s 9.57. Things then got intriguing as both surfers sat for over 15 minutes. There was then a very curious priority situation, which I will turn over to the boys on the LAGO podcast. I will note that this was the second serious priority situation with Callum in a few short events – the other being in El Salvador between him and Liam O’Brien. Jack nabs a score and priority, then puts the nail in the coffin of Callum with an 8.50 of pure class and mastery of backhand tube riding. Callum did get the wave behind which was quite a bit bigger, but he was nowhere near as deep and his score reflected, coming up short with a 7.83. I saw a few comments thinking this could have been the score, but I didn’t think it was anywhere near. Jack sets himself up with a date with Mr. Kelly Slater.
Griffin surfed a near perfect Heat in the next one. Admittedly the “best Heat of his life,” Griffin got the best wave of the day in the first few minutes of the heat, dropping a 10 on Rio Waida. Jimmicane made a nice shoutout, though we shall see in time on the validity of this, claiming that Griff has created a new backside tube riding style by pointing the nose of his board up the face of the wave, purposefully sliding his fins and tail out a bit to get up and over the foamball. Pretty insane shit. He was absolutely toying with the wave in this heat, throwing away a couple of 7’s and closing out the Heat with a 9.60. Rio snagged a solid 8.0 early on in the Heat, only had one other ride for a 0.50. It seemed interesting. He was in the Heat the entire time until that last wave of Griff, but there was only 3 minutes remaining. Griffin wanted it, while Rio obviously didn’t.
The last Heat of the Day was a bit of a sleeper, as Miguel Pupo walked through Mateus Herdy – 13.50 to 1.94. Don’t forget that Miggy won this event just a few years back (2022). He’s coming up against Griffin in Round 3 in what will be a great matchup.
Overall, an incredible day of surfing. Waves of truth; so good to see. There is one Heat in R3 that I would not mind skipping, no offense to Alejo Muniz and George Pittar, but it is H6. The winner of H5 (Ramzi vs Joao Chianca) will face the winner of Muniz v Pittar in the Quarters, and you’d have to think that route to the Semi’s is looking favorable. Every other Heat in the next round is going to be worth a watch – so long as the waves show up.
I’ll be tuned in tomorrow on the edge of my seat, hoping for a green light call. No clue what the forecast is. Fingers crossed.
Talk soon.
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield