Special one

Matahi Drollet: The One and Only

Matahi Drollet is a surfer born into Teahupo’o royalty. Son of an iconic boat driver and younger brother to the legendary Tahitian freesurfer, Manoa. Aged 16, he won the XXL Award for one of the biggest waves ridden at the infamous slab. Since then, he has risen to the apex of the pecking order, mentoring the next generation of Chopes chargers. Thoughtful, patient, but with a showman’s desire to perform, we dive deep into a man that could shape how surfing’s most famous wave is ridden over the next decade

Matahi Drollet grew up at Mataiea, a tiny Tahitian beach village just around the corner from the surfing hub of Papara. His father, Bjarn, who learned to surf in Hawaii after attending boarding school there, had moved his family of five children to Mataiea from capital Papeete in the late 80s.

Bjarn was the first Tahitian to recognise the surf tourism potential and started a boat business driving surfers and photographers to the surrounding reef breaks, including Teahupo’o. A fair proportion of the iconic images of the wave you have seen over the last decades have been taken from his boat.

In 2012, Bjarn moved the Drollets from Mataiea to Teahupo’o. Matahi’s grandmother already had a house up the reef from the break that was accessible only by boat. The family would spend holidays and weekend breaks at the waterfront house. As they were catching their own food and playing in the sheltered lagoon, they could hear, and feel, surfing’s most infamous break thundering in the distance. Apart from the heritage link, the move also made sense for his sister Cindy, who after studying in France, had come back to run the family boat business. With Teahupo’o now universally known, it was a logical base.

Matahi boarded at his old school during the week and would come to the village at the end of the road for the weekend. An A-grade student he’d ensure that all his homework was done so the weekend was completely free to surf.

In those early years, Matahi’s father and brother didn’t allow him to surf Teahupo’o. He would, however, stay in the boat and closely watch the professionals who had hired Bjarn as a driver. In a further Karate Kid style education, Raimana Van Bastolaer was a close family friend. Matahi would stay with him during each school holiday and spend hours on the ski with him learning the art of driving. It was inevitable that  Matahi would surf the wave. Few surfers though have been better prepared for their first shot.

Fast forward two years later and Matahi was ready for anything that Chopes could throw at him.When a huge swell appeared on the charts, he called his brother to see if he would tow him, for their first time as a team. Manoa had done his time surfing the wave, but there was still no better driver. However, just a few days before the swell’s arrival the pair heard the lineup was to be closed for the film shoot.

The shoot was for ‘Point Break 2’. Surfers like Laurie Towner, Dylan Longbottom, and Bruce Irons had been employed as stunt doubles and a full Hollywood production had arrived in time for the biggest and cleanest swell in

After that Point Break swell Matahi doubled down on his commitment to paddling Teahupo’o. Always a skinny kid, he was a late developer physically and didn’t bulk up until later in his teens. The added size helped as he climbed up the pecking order.

“There’s plenty of room for progression at Chopes, especially paddling bigger waves,” he said. “I want to just keep having fun and aim to get the biggest and best waves I can. Everything in my life comes back to that.”

Matahi’s house is now the HQ for all the best big wave surfers in Tahiti. On every swell, the oceanside bungalow transforms into a defacto clubhouse, Jet Ski maintenance centre, safe harbour and doss house. All the best Tahitian surfers, and many of the planet’s most talented chargers, make a beeline for the waterfront pad when Teahupo’o turns on.

On the Black Friday swell, having ridden his one wave just 20 minutes before dark, Matahi returned to find his house flooded by the swell. Sitting out the back the whole day he hadn’t registered the force or scale of the swell; the first to ever swamp his house.

“It was devastating coming home to see my house destroyed,” he says. “But my family was safe, my friends in the water were safe and that’s all that matters,” before adding, almost as an afterthought, “and I rode the biggest barrel of my life.”