Death, taxes, and waves on the Championship Tour going completely psycho right before the WSL opens its event window. These things are guarantees in life. This year at Teahupo’o might be different, though.
We all tend to joke about the WSL narrowly missing incredible swell windows right before CT events kick off, and it seems like just about every event saw all-time surf right before Day 1 action. That sucks when the ocean shuts off the moment that contest window cracks open (I’m looking at you, 2022 G-Land), but at least the competitors that serve up insane freesurf action in those pre-event days still don’t go home empty-handed.
As you’ve seen or heard, Teahupo’o has kept up the trend of delivering some of its A+ material for freesurfs this week. Lucky for surf fans, the swell has held and now we’re all watching heats in some pretty heavy conditions. In that vein, here’s a taste of how good those waves were just 24 hours before Heat 1.