Fifty-two-year-old Kelly Slater, surfing with part of a cadaver holding his hip together , jagged a two-metre Teahupo’o barrel and a 9.73 to start the day. The greatest surfer of all time was the story in Tahiti on Friday (AEST).
For all of 52 seconds. Because one of the heaviest waves in the world turned on one of the greatest competition days ever seen at Teahupo’o. A day after local champion Vahine Fierro and Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb made history with the first perfect 10 ridden at Teahupo’o by a woman , the world’s best male surfers took on the heaving Tahitian break at its best.
Brazilian three-time world champion Gabriel Medina stole the spotlight for much of the day. By mid-morning (AEST) Medina had ridden a perfect 10 and combined it with a 9.83, coming agonisingly close to registering a ‘perfect 20’ for the heat.
The maximum 20-point score from two waves has only been achieved eight times in pro surfing history, and Medina summed up the mythical Tahitian break succinctly straight afterwards. “The wave was just so perfect. The wave was a 10 so I just had to go,” he said of the heaving eight-to-twelve foot barrels at the venue for Olympic surfing in July.
“I just feel blessed to be surfing here on this day. When it comes, it can be the wave of your life.” Fierro, the women’s champion who was exhausted and in bed by 9pm overnight, had never seen anything like it for a competition day.
“It’s really just incredible conditions. Teahupo’o is.