RIDING RAPA NUI
After spending several hours in that back breaking activity we cannot resist the call from the 25 knots of wind blowing over the turquoise water. Carine rigs up her 4.5 Fly in no time and soon is cruising the flat waters making her mast look ridiculously small compared to the one of the trimaran anchored in the bay. I can see that the crew would love to give it a try too but the wind is now getting stronger and changing direction which has all the boys on call for a quick move.
After several days of great waves and off shore winds during which Carine and I get some epic sessions on our SUPs, the signs of a south-west wind window with a building south swell has the entire crew frothing. The idea of windsurfing Tonga Riki’s right is exciting but challenging at the same time. Getting in the water will be easy thanks to a very small man-made entrance on the very right of the bay that offers shelter for small fishing boats. I can get in the water there and swim with my equipment until I catch some wind. Once out there though, there will be no safe exit if something goes wrong. The entire bay is made of lava rocks covered in sea urchins and when big, the shore break is scary.
On D day we show up early at Tonga Riki. Travel guides were right; seeing the sun rising on 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 wave were not breaking at 6 to 8 feet and the spray not shooting in the air at a perfect side off-shore angle we would probably stay there looking in awe. Instead I jump in the back of the truck reaching for my equipment while Pierre, the photographer and Théo, the cameraman, are getting ready to hike to a spot they had scouted a long time 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 peels the best and gives me a chance to make it back out. The wind is gusty as hell because of its off-shore angle and the swell inconsistent but big. The take off area is gnarly and has that boiling water / slab look that makes getting into the wave very tricky. It takes me a good 30 minutes to get my first wave, a solid mast high offering a challenging elevator-drop into a steep section. I get 2 turns on the face until I find an emergency exit before it closes out on super shallow rocks. Great adrenaline rush but I know already that there won’t be many of those. 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 windsurfed before. From the peak I clearly can see the twelve Moais. I don’t expect them to turn around to look at my performance but still, I ask them to protect me with their powerful energy. I guess they did for a while as I got another two very good rides. As the tide drops, kicking out of the wave is getting trickier and I finally get caught by a bigger wave while trying to make it back out. It is too big to allow me to hold on to my equipment that goes straight on to the inside rocks. There is no way I would swim after it. Selfishly the only thing I am worried about at that moment is myself. I start the long swim back, first straight outside to avoid swimming through the peak then up the bay to finally make it safe to the small harbour. Meantime Carine has been trying to arrange a rescue with a local guy. He finally says there is nothing he can do as no boat is going out in such conditions. I make it in all fine but the effort is not over yet as my equipment got stuck on a lava rock before it could make it to shore. I run down the bay, put some shoes on and go swimming to grab the leftovers of my equipment. That is it for the day, well worth the effort and the broken equipment because this session is in my head for the rest of my life.