Hawke noses ahead to catch 'the bomb'

Rising young Christchurch surfing star Sam Hawke was plucked from a Tahiti lagoon struggling for breath, with blood streaming from his nose, after conquering the world's deadliest wave.

The 17-year-old has a whale of a tale to tell his mates when he heads back to Otago University tomorrow but he says the surgeon who operated on his nose a fortnight ago "mightn't be too happy".

Hawke and his coach and mentor, fellow Christchurch wave chaser Doug Young, became the first Kiwi tow team to surf the monstrous Teahupo'o last week after a St Patrick's Day storm created a massive 4.5-metre to 6.1m swell.

Young got a big barrel wave, but Hawke's was bigger. "Everybody out there said it's the biggest wave that's been ridden out there."

Teahupo'o is regarded as "the heaviest and deadliest wave in the world" due to the combination of big, open ocean swells breaking from extremely deep water onto a shallow coral reef.

A jet ski is required to tow a surfer into the wave and to save any that wipe out on the reef.

The Cantabrians' crack at Teahupo'o was a real hit-and-run mission. Young, who has surfed Teahupo'o twice, woke up in Christchurch on March 13 to write his local surf report. He glanced at the swell map and realised it was the chance of lifetime to surf the big Tahitian break for the third time.

Meanwhile, Hawke was home in Christchurch, recovering from an infection after the nasal surgery.

"Doug told me what was happening and asked if I'd drive him to the airport."

Hawke "went around to his house after 10 minutes", with just his board shorts and T-shirt, and made a spur-of-the-moment call to join the mission.

"We only had an hour to get a plane to Auckland and catch the only flight heading to Tahiti for the week.

"We slept the first night on the beach," Hawke said.

The pair took to the water on St Patrick's Day, appropriately clad in green. "I had my green board shorts on, we both had our pounamu necklaces and I had a green life jacket," Hawke said.

Young, 33, "scored one of the most amazing barrel rides of my life" before being "swallowed by the foam ball and dragged across the reef".

"Then I had another five more waves on the head before being finally rescued by the jet ski."

Hawke said Young towed him into "the biggest, gangliest wave".

He glanced around and saw former world championship tour surfer Shane Dorian and his fellow Hawaiian, Ian Walsh, were "waiting for the bomb".

"We started to laugh and threw the rope out. They took the first wave, we took the second and knew it was the bomb," Hawke said.

"Doug screamed at me to `go bro'. As I looked at a dry patch of reef, all I was thinking was that every muscle of my body was set to make the bottom of this wave."

After getting washed into the lagoon, Young pulled Hawke out of the water, struggling for breath with blood rushing out of his nose. But the pair were greeted with a standing ovation from an all-star cast of surfers.

"I told Doug I couldn't breathe and he told me to calm down and take two deep breaths. I must have rebroken my nose. It was pretty painful afterwards and my face looked like a balloon. It gave me a screaming headache for two days. But it was worth it."

Hawke left it to his mother to tell the surgeon the bad news.

"I didn't have the heart to call him. He told me to stay out of the water for a month after the op. I think I might just keep the nose I've got. I can't be bothered to get it done again."

Hawke hit the headlines last August when he scored two perfect 10s in a junior competition in waves topping 4.5m off the South Australia coast.

He and Young will now be among the top contenders for the Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards, a global competition for the world's best big wave surfers.

Follow Sam Hawke and Doug Young's Tahitian adventure on www.surf.co.nz

- © Fairfax NZ News