Day 64 - Tavi Tavi Tavi!!!

I surfed waist high Tavarua today. Well not really, but that is where my mind was, so it may as well have been. I'm working so hard to peak (physically) even a little bit more - it's all mental at this stage, I'm there physically. I want to be ready if it gets serious out there, there will be a bunch of Hawaiians on the trip and a ton of better surfers than me, so I'll be pushed by both talent and cajones. The Hawaiians will certainly be like, "It's 2 foot out there", which is when I'll double take and say, "How do you get a stand up barrel in 2 foot?". That's what they do you know, it is all about downplaying the conditions on their end, that's the culture which has developed out of regularly being subject to serious surf. This happened at Macaroni's once. I'll have to find the video of that sometime. There were some Hawaiians calling it 2 foot and guys were getting stand up barrels. The joking aside, guys from the islands are typically the real deal and they'll drop in and they'll pull in. They'll surf double overhead stuff like its nothing, doing turns where it doesn't seem possible. I can't wait to see this, experience it, take it all in. There is no way that I'm going to let this opportunity pass. If I can paddle in, I'm on it. If there is a barrel, I'm in it. That is what I'm thinking, that is what I'm doing. I'm in my twilight of taking a serious beatings, so I'm going to rack up as many of those as possible now (I think I got whiplash from a pounding in Nica)! Without risk, no reward. So stoked, so stoked. Just have to hope for a solid swell or two during my time there. I watched a show on Tavarua on Fuel TV last night after Tom informed me about it via text. It was a Nixon trip to Tavi, probably in February or something (not prime time), they got fun waves, but nothing serious. So you can get sort of skunked there, I hope that is not us.

We caught some fun ones out there today. Nothing GOOD but, I had fun. I kept trying to bottom turn even though there was no room to do so. It was about waist high on the inside and bowly. We both were able to get some speed. One wave, I thought Jay was going to launch as he had a ton of speed, but he instead opted for a super extended floater - probably the right call, but I like to let loose when there is nothing to lose.


Backside Airdrop!


Ben sitting pretty:



Turning where I shouldn't:

I love surfing: