Drones are generally an annoyance, shattering the peace of otherwise perfect days with their incessant high-pitched whining. Usually strapped to some tool of HD video capture they invade our privacy and will continue to proliferate as the technology becomes cheaper and more versatile. Perhaps the only thing worse than a standard drone is one so unobtrusive that we mistake it for a dragonfly, or don’t notice it at all. Welcome to the future.
If you hate them as much as some people do, you’ll be pleased to know there is a whole anti-drone movement, who have formulated quite often violent methods of disabling our unmanned flying friends. If you’re interested, ways to down a drone range from using a scrambler to jam its control signals to deploying mist traps that catch them mid-flight. You might also consider launching cheap kamikaze drones of your own, and ambushing the intruders in your own 21st century dog fights. From the comfort of your la-z-boy, of course.
However, some drones are best left alone. Like the one that carried a state-of-the-art photographic device over the ground zero that is Teahupo’o in Tahiti. Enjoy the silky smooth motion, the vivid colour and detail, and not least of all the fact that it was cruising only metres from oblivion. It’s as close to the cauldron as most of us will ever get.
Would you go?
Man, it looks like a makeable drop. Is the only difference between us and the guys who surf this wave the fact that they are prepared to risk death by reef? Is it possible for the average Joe to surf Teahupo’o by approaching it in increments? Start at three foot and take baby steps up, up, up to THE DEVIL. Do you need skill or just a pair of massive kiwifruit and a penchant for grabbing rail? Decide for yourself. If you could only catch one more wave in your life and one of these was it, would you go?
Video by Surfer Mag