Teahupoo: The Worst Lee Shore On Earth

The photo above is me surfing in Tahiti--this is what mortals do when they go surfing (and since it's me I won't get sued for posting this photo). That same year, 2000, about  twenty miles away in Teahupoo (pronounced Cho-po) Laird Hamilton rode his famous wave. When I describe Teahupoo, I say it's not really a wave, more like the Pacific Ocean folding on top of itself. The video of Laird is moving and humbling to watch, even if you're not a surfer. It's kind of like watching the Olympics--a standalone athelete, in his prime, doing something on the cutting edge that completely raises the bar of what's possible. He is an amazing athlete (and a freaking giant) and makes us all a little better by what he did:

But that was twelve years ago, and in that time surfers have ridden bigger waves at Teahupoo, and again, you don't have to be a surfer to see how astounding these waves and these rides are. If it looks like they're risking their lives, they certainly are. Five surfers have died surfing Teahupoo in the last twelve years, and the list of grievous injuries is endless. This video is some of the best footage I've ever seen. It's all in slow motion, which normally I don't like, because surfing is all about speed, but this footage is in high definition, so if you change the image quality to 720 you can see it in full screen in all its glory: