There were no takers. Whether it was makeable, or even paddleable, will remain a mystery. But the west bowl that just erupted in the lineup at Chopes during round one of the Billabong Pro, Tahiti had every single person in the channel scratching as hard as they could for deep water. It exploded on the reef before taking out the (luckily empty) filming scaffolding and rolling it over the reef. So, yes, the swell is still building.

Oh, and in case you're unawares, the west bowls are the ones John John loves to pick off – they bend into the reef from the right (if you're looking at the horizon), break on a different part of the reef and look like closeouts.

This is only gonna get better.