The Laird/Chopes Ting...

The wanderin' minstrel that is Mickey Smith has been in Taheets where him, Ferg and Lowey had a pop at Chopes (as you'll have seen from the cover of Carve below) he's just whacked a riveting account of their experience on his blog that makes for good reading. Here's a quote for ya-
"Then it all went a bit tits up with the hype of the first mega swell there in a coupla years, and the subsequent arrival of big wig film crews, hookers and photographers everywhere, all trying to get a piece of Chopes and a godlike Laird Hamilton. The mega swell was a non event, but as there were some perfect waves Laird merrily obliged the ogling masses with some pretty dangerous displays of blatant disregard for anyone else - by surfing all day on his SUP, taking every decent set on a very slow swell along with his buddies, not caring how frickin lethal those boards are in 1ft waves - let alone 6-8ft waves at Chopes, and especially when there's 30 other people trying to ride them - most of whom are spending their own hard earned money camping in the valley hoping to get a once in a lifetime chance at riding a setwave out there".