Massive tubes, new records, broken jet skis, wild wipe-outs and severe lacerations for the third Tow-In Sunday of the year.

Only a few weeks after the last big south swell hit the Tahitian islands, Teahupoo turned it on again for an elite crew of tow-in surfers.

Early in the morning a group of body boarders were charging clean, glassy 12’ + conditions. By 10 am 12 jet skis and numerous boats had taken over the line-up.

Raimana Van Bastolaer suffered a horrendous wipe-out when he positioned himself too high after the bottom turn and got thrown off his board at the worst spot. The lip slammed Raimana down into the reef and split the back of his foot, resulting in fifteen stitches and numerous aching muscles.

An hour later, Malik Joyeux, nearly made the same mistake but managed to hold his line in the pocket and ride the wave right through. The extra four kilos of lead he had added to his board a few days before certainly worked this time round. Malik’s wave is probably the widest tube ever surfed at Teahupoo. A beast so wide you could fit a FedEx truck sideways inside the tube.

Manoa Drollet scored the bomb of the day early in the afternoon: a perfect, deep blue, 40’+ set wave with a slightly more westerly direction than the others. He slotted himself perfectly for a deep tube and got blasted out of the tube by the spit.

The volume of water being moved around was so huge that all the water started draining off the reef and sinking below sea level. Cinematographer Larry Haynes was swimming right in the sweet spot at the time and managed to record the ride but got sucked into the huge lip and went over the falls. He finished up in the lagoon, minus a swim fin and his diving mask, copping a few bruises and scrapes as proof of entry.

Manoa’s wave is the biggest wave ever surfed at Teahupoo: a mutant west bowl that allowed the talented Teahupoo local to ride the tube deep in the bowl section with a 15’+ lip right above him.

The explosion created by Manoa’s wave left a huge white water trail in the whole line-up area.

On the second wave of the set, Garrett McNamara started sliding down the face of this perfect white water tube right in the treacherous bowl section. He suffered heavy lacerations to both legs. «You’ve got to pay your dues some day» he explained, with a smile, a few minutes later.

After numerous horrendous wipe-outs at Teahupoo over the last four years, he has managed to come out practically unscathed each time. This time he gets to go back home with one of the worst Teahupoo tattoos in history!

Eric Akiskalian from Towsurfer.com happened to come down with a heart surgeon.

Lucky for Raimana , Garrett and Eric who also cut his foot on the reef the previous day .

They had the luxury of being patched up right there on the boat or on the beach .

Kiwi charger, Doug Young, was dropped off on the same wave by Thierry Tching and happened to be15’ feet deeper than Garrett but miraculously came out without a scratch.

Laird Hamilton got a few deep rides and performed some classic trademark lay-back barrels. During the day Koby Abberton and Makua Rothman had the luxury of Laird’s tow-in expertise and got dropped off on some gems. Unfortunately, Laird was added to the injured list when he kicked out at full speed, his board hitting some chop, leaving him with a twisted knee as a result of hyper-extending his leg.

Tahitians Didier Tin Sin, Patrice Chanzy, Vetea David, Arsène Harehoe, Kevin Johnson and Jody, also got their fair share of massive tubes in between the usual dramas. Waves nearly caught three boats and one jet ski got smashed on the reef when it broke down in the take-off area, just as a set rolled in.

An amazing day, full sketchy situations and great rides that confirms Malik Joyeux and Manoa Drollet as the most consistant Tow-In team at Teahupoo. Either way you look at the waves and measure their size. It seems that the 2 Oxbow team riders old all standing record at Teahupoo. for biggest wave, biggest tube, widest tube and deepest, longest barrel.