(Reuters) – New Zealand surfer Saffi Vette felt the full wrath of Teahupo’o when injured in a wipe-out in Tahiti, so there was some trepidation on her return to the punishing break last month for a training block in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics.
The 22-year-old was pounded by a wave on day two of a surfing camp last July, suffering a knee injury that put her out of action for three months.
Though having recovered with the help of her physio mum, Vette’s body flashed warning signs days before her nerve-wracking return to Tahiti this year.
“It was funny, about a week out both my knees started hurting again and I hadn’t had that in a while,” she told reporters on a video call on Tuesday.
“And I spoke to my physio and obviously my mum as well and they’re like, ‘Ah, it’s definitely just mental. Like, you’ve been training so hard. There’s no way your knees will be giving out at all, and you’re still young.’
“So it’s funny what your mental state of mind can kind of do to you prior to going back to somewhere that you’ve hurt yourself.”
Confirmed on New Zealand’s Olympic team on Tuesday, Vette said she emerged from her training block unscathed and was “stoked” with her mental and physical state ahead of the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympics.
The demons may be exorcised but she will be far from complacent on her next trip to Teahupo’o, which has sent some of the world’s leading surfers straight to hospital with serious injuries.
“I’ve never really experienced a wave of this kind of power before and it’s scary,” said Vette, who grew up by a surf beach near Gisborne in New Zealand’s North Island.
“I’m not going to lie. It’s definitely scary. And I don’t think anyone goes out there with a large amount of confidence.
“I think you’re just trying to gain as much experience as possible before the event starts and going over there for two weeks was probably the best thing I’ve ever done.”
‘SPECIAL PEOPLE’
Billy Stairmand will represent New Zealand in the men’s surfing at Paris, an athlete who Vette has a close affinity with – both Kiwi surfers lost a parent to cancer.
Stairmand’s mother died some seven years ago, while Vette lost her father a year out from the COVID-delayed Tokyo Olympics.
One of Vette’s earliest memories is of being pushed out on the water by her father Andrew, who was a competitive surfer.
There was a sadness in Vette’s eyes as she spoke of her father and how she and Stairmand were stronger for their emotional challenges.
“I think it definitely makes you hungrier going to achieve your goals,” she said.
“Not having these special people part of our lives anymore is heartbreaking, obviously, but I just know that my dad is smiling down on me. I can see his big grin.
“We’ve got this special connection with them through the ocean.
“In a way, sometimes you think that they’re sending you these specific ways to do really well — and I’ll keep believing that.”
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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