It's been seven long days of flat seas at Teahupoo, site of the fifth stop on this year's ASP World Tour, and one of the most anticipated thanks to the wave and the major implications to the world tour roster in the wake of this competition.
But the wait is over. The event is on today.
Today was the last day to get this thing started if Billabong and the ASP are going to finish on time. And we're hearing now that's going to happen.
But even if they finish a a couple rounds today that doesn't mean this event's problems are over. If the swell quickly fades on Tuesday, rendering heats impossible, Billabong and the ASP will have to start thinking about contingency plans, including cancellation.
Canceled events are rare, but do happen. Billabong knows this all to well since they just had to cancel a 6-Star Prime event in the Azores due to lack of swell. It's usually the surfers who demand heats not be run if conditions are bad. They're the ones seeking fairness. It's rare when organizers are the ones leading the no-go charge.
While pulling the plug on Tahiti would be torture to many fans, it's would be an even bigger headache for the ASP and their hatchet job. It's likely they'd reserve trimming their roster until after the Hurley Pro at Trestles, but there will certainly be an interesting debate about that with the ASP and the surfers.
We'll should know the answers to all of this by today at the earliest, Tuesday at the latest.
Above: With a flat lineup behind him, Billabong Pro contest director Luke Egan has no easy answers during the morning call. It's not the first time Egan's nearly lost his mind while trying to run an event in Tahiti.
