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This kid that I knew, he was, in my eyes, the best surfer in the world. Not because he has won world titles and trophies or ridden the biggest waves but because he embodied what surfing is all about, sharing the stoke of nature. He carried the love of surfing in his smile and his trademark, a high-pitched laugh. Whoever had the privilege to meet him or surf by his side was captivated by his love of life.

Raised on the tropical island paradise of Moorea in French Polynesia, he started surfing at the age of 8. He was fourteen when I first meet him on Hawaii‘s North Shore. The skinny little blond from Tahiti was already making buddies with some of the kids of the heavy locals. There is nothing better than a bit of South Pacific brotherhood to get by on the North shore. At age16 he was dropping into some of the biggest waves at the infamous Teahupoo reef break on Tahiti. Soon his name was reaching the glossy magazines worldwide, e.g. double page spreads riding a Teahupoo tube 10’ deeper behind Shane Beshen (ranked at the time world N° 3). Finally sponsors saw the potential of this stylish tube rider who could ride deeper than anyone on the world most dangerous wave. But at the time, Tahitian wasn’t really the best nationality to fit the big market areas that the surf industry giants were targeting. A Californian, Australian or European surfer would systematically have more opportunities.

He had a dream, a very simple dream: making a living out of surfing. It’s a first when you come from Moorea, an island populated by 5000 people. He didn’t want much, just enough to show his talent. For years his older brother Teiva, little sister Tylane and mother Hélène lived in a big hut near Haapiti on Moorea. He had none of the luxuries of western kids - no hot water, no TV, no cell phone, no car. The family lived with the strict minimum in total happiness. Their strength was the family and their love of nature. The hut was immersed in nature. It had no walls, just a wooden structure with a roof, surrounded by ferns and palm trees.For them it was heaven. Their playground was the ocean just meters away.

Teiva managed to turn professional windsurfer and kite-surfer and moved to Hawaii to pursue his dream.
Malik started to get some sponsorship deals as a surfer: just a few clothes, some boards and plane tickets.

He would see all the high-paid professional surfers turn up at his local breaks every year and would dream of the day he could have a car and build a house for his family. He wasn’t jealous in any way - he just wanted to be part of the show. Soon his local break would become the most published wave in the world. Teahupoo was at the centre of all the surf media. The Tahitians with their innate tube sense were riding the wave better than anyone but none had a contract that could really set them up for life. Malik believed he could have one.

Malik was smart. He could rebuild a computer in a matter of minutes, construct a website or work on the most sophisticated 3D software. He could have landed a well-paid job anytime in Papeete. But he wanted to surf, find new waves. He wanted to be in the water . He wanted to improve his surfing and share all his experiences. Finally, as his exposure increased, his sponsors started to pay him more reasonably, but just enough to scrape by. Malik with his Tahitian innocence was easy prey for unscrupulous sponsors. A sunglass company even used his image for over two years without paying him a dime. He never seemed to have enough money to get a proper quiver. He had 2 or 3 boards at the most and they lasted no longer than a couple of days at Teahupoo on a big swell. He would then have to fix some computers to secure at least the minimum equipment for his risky trade.

For the Tahitian surf community, he was our little brother and we all cherished the moments spent with him. Everybody would help him out as best they could and Malik sure gave a lot back. French surfer, Didier Piter, took him under his wing in the European Gotcha team and managed to finance his first surf trips with a reasonable contract. During the North Shore season, Kahea Hart would dedicate countless hours taking care of the young Tahitians and doing fitness training with them. Malik was so motivated about his surfing that he would soak up any advice he could get. He knew he had to work hard to get where he wanted.

On April 29th 2003. Malik called me up at 5 am. As it turned out, 8 years down the track we were neighbours in Paea, Tahiti. He knew the waves were going to get big at Teahupoo and he needed a ride down. I picked him up at dawn on the side of the road to head down to Teahupoo. He was bare foot wearing board shorts and t-shirt, clutching two salvaged boards, his sole possessions.

He didn’t know it yet but within a few hours his life was going to change. Nature was going to kick start his career. One of the biggest southwest swells of the decade was pulsing on the treacherous reef break. Every set was a foot bigger than the previous one. Soon the glassy perfect line up turned into a dark dredging machine sifting the whole ocean into the lagoon. The paddle surfers slowly retreated from the line up as the jet skis started to swing the tow-in surfers into action. Malik was right next to me on the boat from which I was shooting.

He had been looking at the conditions and you could tell by his eyes that all he wanted to do was feel one of those beasts from up close. Teahupoo fascinated him. This wave could satisfy his need for adrenaline. He knew this wave was a gift for him, a gift for all Tahitians. He had only been towed in once before, during a massive south swell in July 2001. At the time he charged on a couple of waves and even scored the cover of the SURFER Big Issue a few years later with a photo of that session. This time Malik was offered a first ride around noon , a massive perfect tube that seemed like the bomb of the day. He was brimming with confidence although his board didn’t feel quiet right.

Suddenly the engine cable on our boat snapped and we began to drift into the impact zone. We had to be towed back into the marina by another boat. The waves were getting out of control. We couldn’t stop looking out at the reef from the marina. We had got to get back out there. Something was going to happen.
Malik wanted another go.

Local surfer Alain Riou offered to take me out with his dinghy and I told Malik to grab one board and head out with us. The dinghy barely made it out through the channel, so strong was the current pulsing from the still rising swell.. I soon realized that shooting from such a small boat was going to be very dangerous in these wild seas and the jetski drivers wouldn’t notice malik on our small embarcation. As luck would have it, I caught the eye of Kin Kin, one of the best boat drivers around coming back from a successful mahi- mahi fishing run. He offered to finish off the day positioning us at Teahupoo to check the action , being a surfer himself. We hopped onto his boat and got right back into pole position in the channel.
The waves were getting so massive that most surfers were happy just sitting in the line up enjoying the show. Bruce Irons jumped on our boat to take a closer look and he was not reassured by what he saw. But he finally got himself amped up and rode a beast. The ocean kept growing relentlessly and all the surfers were getting the rides of a lifetime. They all knew tragedy could strike at any moment but they kept going.

Raimana came by our boat a couple of hours later and offered Malik a last ride. There was not even a split second of hesitation on Malik’s part. He put on a life vest and jumped in the water. He had been waiting patiently all day for those one or 2 moments where one if his brothers would give him a go. He had paid his dues paddle surfing at Teahupoo and nothing scared him.. He would stand up at the back of the boat and follow the jet ski pilots to make it clear that he was ready at any time they had a break. A few minutes later the real bomb of the day was moving in and Raimana was carefully positioning Malik in the sweet spot. “Wait, hold on, hold on ….. O.K Let go”, yelled Raimana. Malik dropped the rope and held his line down a 30 foot wall as the wave started exploding around him. The spit of the tube nearly torpedoed him into oblivion, but he managed to stay on and made it to the safety of the channel.

At the ripe old age of 23, Malik Joyeux had just ridden one of the most dangerous waves ever. The crowd went wild. Before that ride, the size reference at Teahupoo was Laird Hamilton’s incredible wave in 2000. Raimana, Vetea David, Garrett McNamara, Strider Wasilewski, or even Tahitians Didier TinSin and Nicolas Lee Tham had scored some monsters during that same sell or previous ones , but all agreed that Malik’s wave was the biggest ever challenged at Teahupoo. He had set the new record and had made a name for himself instantly, subsequently winning the ‘ Tube of the Year’ award of the Billabong XXL Big Wave awards.

Finally, luck was smiling on Malik. A few months earlier he had even fallen in love with a Tahitian princess called Kamakea. She would soon be totally mesmerized by Malik’s energy and devoted countless hours to helping him to follow his chosen path. Numerous photographers and cameramen had captured his ride and it wasn’t long before he was on the cover of all the magazines and with a feature section in all the latest DVD’s. Raimana’s expert driving had a lot to do with it but it was Malik who made it all happen. His whole attitude to life made that moment happen for him. His motivation and generosity were always repaid. Teahupoo gave him a gift, a chance to fulfil his dream. He was at the right place at the right time and rode the wave like a champion.

He didn’t let fame go to his head, remaining as humble as on Day One. Everywhere he went people would come up to him with a huge smile and talk about his feats. If he had been able, he would have taken every one of them for a ride at Teahupoo to let them share his feelings. His generosity was without limits.

Finally magazines were starting to spell his name correctly and real contracts rolled in. In a few seconds, Malik made more coverage than some pro surfers in their whole contest career. Such is the power of Teahupoo today. Malik Joyeux was a name everybody had heard about. Here was a young, fearless, talented tube rider raised on the sharp coral reefs of Tahiti, destined to a great big wave-riding career.

For the last two years Malik had teamed up with partner and Teahupoo master, Manoa Drollet, and on every swell they would consistently be in the top performers at Teahupoo, whether it be in a clean 6’ swell or maxed out conditions. They had understood the importance of creating a real team, gathering experience on every swell and working with the proper logistics. Their new sponsor, Oxbow, financed 2 jet skis and started documenting practically all their sessions.

2005 was a great tow-in season at Teahupoo: no less than four massive swells. Although a lot of other surfers were getting great rides, Malik’s and Manoa’s consistency and experience at the break was remarkable. From dawn to dusk they would hunt down all the bombs Teahupoo could throw at them and had also started to prospect new big wave spots. Their performances on May 1st and 2nd and then on September 11th and 26th of this year marked them out as the Teahupoo tow-in Dream Team. No body in the world was riding so deep in so many enormous tubes. If these boys where performing like this at 25 and 27 years old you can only imagine how good they will be at the maturity age of most big wave riders.
With the media invasion and increasing number of tow-in teams on every big swell, they made sure the locals had their fair share of great rides and coverage. In addition the boys had just finished two major 52-minute documentaries for mainstream T.V , on surf exploration in the Maldives and French Polynesia for their sponsor. Their press books and film coverage for 2005 are right up there next to the Top 5 surfers in the world. Not a bad for 2 isolated young Tahitians.

To top it off, Malik and his brother Teiva had just landed the 2nd and 3rd roles in a $10 million budget feature film.

Director Paige Depont and producer Rich Foster had met the two brothers on Maui and believed straight away in their potential for a film project. The production ‘reel’ was shot in Tahiti in October of this year and the two brothers were bursting out of the screen with talent. The crew had shivers running down their spines in one scene where Malik had to save his brother from drowning. He was a multi talented natural.

His surfing technique was so smooth and perfect that the footage they where creating is going to blow people’s minds. Malik would gracefully drop into a perfect tube holding a heavy 16 mm high-speed film camera capturing sensational new angles with incredible ease. He had always been interested in the filming aspect of surfing. He was constantly filming with a p.o.v camera and thinking up new ways to film surfing.
He would invent things every month. He would build his own water housings and have his girlfriend film all his sessions on HD camera to analyse his mistakes and create footage. And now he had the chance of working with the best cinematographers in the business. All this was beyond his wildest dreams. But he deserved every single bit of it. His attitude and charm were irresistible. He was, and still is our Prince, a true Tahitian ambassador.

The principal photography of the movie was scheduled for early 2006 with filming in Hawaii and Tahiti.
Malik was set to become a modern day hero, a surfer who could communicate the essence of surfing with all his being. He was, to put it briefly, an ocean of laughter, respect, innocence, friendship and generosity, a new generation of athlete, so pure as to be able to share real emotions. Not the emotions of winning yet another title or riding the biggest wave, but the simple emotion of being in love with the ocean and sharing its secrets.and it’s beauty. His life, his personality, his smile were the greatest show on earth.

A happy soul was swept to his fate at Pipeline in Hawaii on the morning of Dec 2nd 2005.

The surfing world has its James Dean. His name is Malik Joyeux.

A true legend is born.

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April 29, 2003 : 23 Year old Tahitian surfer Malik Joyeux from Moorea rides the biggest wave ever surfed at Teahupoo. That afternoon the swell jumped from 6 feet to over 20 feet in a few hours. Raimana was the jetski pilot that positionned Malik in the perfect spot on ther biggest set of the day around 4 pm . Other great rides came from Vetea David, Raimana, Manoa Drollet, Nicolas Lee Tham, Corey Lopez, Strider, Jamie Sterling, Bruce Irons and many more.