Teahupoo, a parish off the south-west coast of Tahiti Island, French Polynesia, is known for giant, heavy and glassy waves approaching shores with usual stature of around 7 to 10 feet. When winds are strong, some strong swells also rise up to 70 feet making Teahupoo (pronounced as Cho-poo) one of the places of big wave surf and so it seats amongst the most dangerous surf spots on the planet.

Veteran surfers often hunt for more thrilling and adventurous surf spots and though riding on such monster waves is believed as a great achievement, number of casualties and even deaths at Teahupoo cannot be overlooked. To drop down from the wave means you are likely to shatter against the finely honed reef just couple of feet below the surface. The list of such downbeat reasons does not end here only. Teahupoo is known as a left-hand break reef, but you cannot expect it to be so all the times, it sometimes creates right-hand breaks too. That’s the reason why it is so baffling and equally wicked break to ride on.

Teahupoo is a dangerous surf break not only because of the height of waves but its thickness, volume and shallow water. It’s also because paddling in there is almost impossible; this coast is infamous among surfers.

Teahupoo is also notorious for the unpredictable barrels it carries. Teahupoo features a debut in a film called Riding Giants that released in 2003. It is renowned spot for windsurfing and kite-surfing as well.

Being universally referred to as the heaviest wave, the list put out by Transworld Surf aptly secures a place for Teahupoo amongst the top 10 deadliest waves of the world. Out of several cruel deaths recorded at Teahupoo, five have been recorded since 2000, the most frightening was of a local surfer named Briece Taerea who gave a shot to duck-dive but felled off the monster wave and strike against the reef over his head.

No doubt, it’s not the secure spot for want-to-learn surfers therefore try to stay away from such a fiend break.