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Sixteen feet. Sixteen seconds. These two simple numbers can have a wild impact when they show up on Tahiti swell-prediction charts. On Monday 24th July, the whole South Pacific region from Antarctica to Tahiti was showing strong wind fetch heading for the French Polynesian Islands. These were the perfect ingredients to bring the famed Teahupoo reef break really alive a few days later.

Things had been unusually quiet since the beginning of the year. The much-anticipated late April tow-in sessions had never materialized. Some foreign tow-in teams had actually camped over 2 months waiting for one of those epic sessions. Some big classic paddle-in sessions had taken place but nothing worth pulling out the jet ski from the garage.

By Thursday night, the Tahitian reefs were rumbling with a clean SSW deep ocean swell. Waves were starting to wash up into the multi-million dollar beachfront homes close to Taapuna.

The Billabong Adventure Division team, Dylan Longbottom and Laurie Towner were quickly dispatched to pair up with Shane Dorian and local Manoa Drollet. Laird Hamilton teamed up with local charger Raimana Van Bastolaer.
Mark Healey, Peter Mel and Brazilians Patio and Silvio Mancusi made up the foreign contingent. Most of the usual Teahupoo addicts were on stand-by for an amazing day.

For the local crew it was an emotional day. Everybody had only one thing on his mind - our late friend Malik.

Cameramen like Gilles Hucault, Marco, Timothé Pruvost had followed Malik on practically every tow-in session at Teahupoo. Surfers like Manoa Drollet, Raimana, Poto and Arsene had shared some incredible rides and moments with him at Teahupoo. Malik’s girl friend, Kamakea, came out with us with her HD camera to film all the action from the boat of Manoa’s father, Bjarn Drollet. As we set foot in the boat, a lizard not unlike Malik’s dorsal tattoo was sitting in the back next to the engine. Obviously this little gecko wanted to hang out with us today!

It took some courage for Kamakea to get back out into the roaring maxed-out Teahupoo line up, the type of conditions in which Malik would leave his mark, always rising to the occasion.

Something was tragically different without Malik’s physical presence in the line up. Tears were periodically fogging up the eyepieces of some of the most seasoned Teahupoo photographers and cameramen. It was as if the wave itself had actually changed. As if the reef was bending a different way. As if the waves were maybe smaller. People were looking over their shoulders expecting to hear that laugh or see his magnetic smile. His name kept popping up in conversations. But eventually the beauty and the hypnotic power of the wave started to work its magic. See the pictures and read the rest of the article here.