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Nothing better than traveling to a warm-water destination in the middle of winter so you can immediately chuck the wetsuit and surf in boardshorts again. It almost feels like cheating, Xmas break was the best time for me to sneak away with my boys Tyler (21) and AJ (14) so they wouldn't miss any school.

In the interest of avoiding all of the other vacationing surfers, and to capitalize on the northwest swells expected, we decided to take up the advice of Henry Morales of Wavehunters to book ourselves aboard The Cascade in Tahiti, a 63' yacht currently located in the Tuamotus Atolls above Tahiti. What's very nice about Tahiti compared to Indo, it's a very short flight from California (about 8 hours) and you're easily in the water around noon the next day, compared to the 2-3 day travel hassles of Indo.

During the winter the Tuamotus pick up lots of northwest swell sweeping down from the North Pacific, much the same as Hawaii picks up south swells during the summer from the South Pacific. Tradewinds are usually moderate out of the East Southeast, which means clean offshore conditions for most of the northwest swell spots. Tahiti and the Tuamotus also pick up Southern Hemisphere and various typhoon swells throughout the year as well, and The Cascade is always exploring many new reefs and passes to capture the best swells at the right place at the right time.

About a week before our departure date, we spotted a significant northwest swell developing on the long range charts that would arrive a few days ahead of our scheduled arrival. So we were able to move our departure date earlier by a few days so we would arrive ahead of the swell. And behind that the North Pacific was loading up with more solid overhead northwest swells for the rest of the week, so there was no question we were in for a lot of waves. It's always nice to know exactly what is in the forecast and what waves to expect, so we could pack accordingly with the right boards for the entire trip.

After an easy flight, we were met at the airport by local boy Moana David, older brother of well known charger Vetea David. Moana drove our water taxi from the local airport, which took across a crystal clear lagoon to the other side of the atoll where the Cascade was anchored.

The first sight of the Cascade was stunning. She was anchored just inside of a pass through the reef in calm water, and on the outside perfect emerald green overhead rights were reeling off through the pass and right up to the boat. It was one of those "Kodak moments". Unfortunately, we were too mesmerized by the view and the waves to take a photo; we were more concerned about getting into the water as fast as possible.

Once aboard the Cascade we met co-owner Chris O'Callaghan, Moana's partner, Captain Jody, and the rest of the crew. There were a few extra people on the boat for the first couple days as a few bookings were overlapping, but everybody was totally cool there was plenty of room -- both in and out of the water. Henry Morales also made the trip down once he saw the forecast with all those northwest swells stacking up on the horizon.

Well, the North Pacific certainly delivered as expected with back-to-back solid swells all week. It never dropped under head high the entire trip, and the bigger swells toward the end of the week were macking with 15-20 foot faces that actually closed out the channel in the reef pass. We had a few magical days with glassy conditions all day, surfing by ourselves or with just a couple other guys, and scoring perfect barrels peeling along the reef and depositing you on inside right next to the boat.

Like anywhere in the tropics the weather changes a lot, and a few days had passing rain and some funky northwest winds so on those days we had to be on it for the Dawn and Dusk patrols to avoid the wind. Usually during a charter, the Cascade will also cruise around to a few other atolls to surf a few other waves, but given the large swell size and the variable northwest winds, we all agreed on the best spot to hold the swell and conditions so we stayed put.

There is both a world class right and left here. The left is a hollower barrel than the right, but it needs more west in the swell direction to make it work. The northwest swell directions we had during our trip quickly pinched off the lefts in very shallow water and the rights were working the best. On one day a couple guys surfed the left and got a few barrels, but also got buggered on the reef pretty hard. The rest of us were happy to stay on the rights.

The right is a very fun wave with great barrel sections. It isn't a super critical type of wave so it is generally very easy to surf and good for intermediate through advanced surfers. The reef is pretty modest except for a few nasty coral heads on the far inside. On the biggest days the close out sets through the channel were pretty interesting, and I just opted to hold on and get washed inside were the current would sweep me back around to the outside. There were quite a few broken boards this trip as a lot of guys were chucking their boards under the bigger sets and the leash pull with the wave pressure would snap them pretty quick.

Like all reef passes the currents can be extreme, especially when the swell is big. While it can be an easy trip back out to the line up, when the current was running at max strength speed it demanded our full attention to not get swept out of the lineup. The Cascade and crew were always nearby and monitoring the surfers in the lineup. Good thing too, as this one guy kept getting swept outside and the skiff had to go out and retrieve him more than a few times. He figured it out later.

On one of the big days one guest paddled a surf ski kayak inside of the pass to catch a few small inside waves. He never made it. The current immediately sucked him through the reef pass where he was instantly bombed by 15-foot closeout sets in the channel. In less than a minute he and the kayak were blown out into a safe zone outside the pass, and the Cascade sent the skiff out which retrieved him and the kayak. Needless to say it was great entertainment for the rest of us watching it all unfold.

Overall it was a great trip and we were stoked with the Cascade and its crew. The food was great with Jeff, a Five Star Chef from Florida, serving up all the action with lots of fresh fish and three meals each day. Chris and Moana have a great knowledge of all the surf breaks in the area and they know how to find the best waves. The Cascade also has a large quiver of various types and sizes of surfboards. They also bought the three boards that I brought to add to the quiver, but I think Moana really just wanted to get his hands on that 7'2"of mine.

We also had a great mix of passengers who all surfed well and shared lots of waves. On the down days we were able to do some snorkeling in the amazing lagoon and explore the small village on the atoll. The Tahitians have to be among the most friendly people in the world, we had a great time and looking forward to doing it again next year.--Sean Collins

Thanks to David de Vries and Michael Cherry for sharing waves during the trip and their photos for this Tripwire and special thanks also to Henry Morales and wavehunters.com for making the whole thing possible.



RELATED LINKS:
Teahupoo Resort Guide
Surfline Tahiti Forecast
LOLA for Tahiti