On a good south swell day we show up early at Tonga Riki. The travel guides are right; seeing the sun rising over the bay is breathtaking. On its way up from behind the cliffs the sun slowly unfolds its light, first on the Moai’s backs giving them a rare orange tone then on the entire pasture to finally explode on the volcano. If the left was not looking so tempting we would probably stay there staring in awe. Instead I jump in the back of the truck reaching for my board while Pierre, the photographer and Théo, the cameramen are getting ready to hike to a spot they had scouted a while ago. They know the shot they want to get with the Moais in the foreground and I know the wave I want to get; the second or third of the set that breaks a litter further out from the rocks and gives me a chance to exit. The take off area is gnarly and gets that boiling water/ slab look that makes getting into the wave very tricky.
It takes me a good 30 minutes to ride my first wave after negotiating a challenging air drop. I draw a quick line until I find an emergency exit before I end on dry rocks. Great adrenaline rush but I know already that there won’t be many of those if I want to keep my board in one piece. I take my time to enjoy the moment and look around to better take it all in. I have never felt such “Mana” anywhere I have surfed before. From the peak I clearly see the fifteen Moais that I don’t expect to turn around to look at my performance. Still, with every challenging session I said a quick prayer for protection from these big guys.
“ The take off area is gnarly and gets that boiling water slabby look that makes getting into the wave very tricky ”
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