“MANOA SAID, ‘OKAY, FORGET THAT…LET’S JUST WAIT FOR THE BIGGEST BOMB,’” RECALLS MATAHI. “KAULI’S WAVE CAME AT 9 AM. I WAITED NINE HOURS, UNTIL WE SAW A WAVE THE SAME SIZE OR BIGGER, AND I KNEW IT WAS MY WAVE.” “I wanted to get a huge one, so I called my brother, Manoa, because I needed the best driver to put me on the best, biggest wave of the day,” Matahi Drollet told Tracks. The day was Friday, August 13, 2021. Two weeks prior, Matahi had dislocated his shoulder exiting an eight-foot barrel at Chopes…on a foil board. We’ll come to that later.
The swell was huge. As big, if not bigger, than the Code Red swell of 2011, the benchmark for maxing Teahupo’o. On that swell, Matahi, then aged…