Paris boasts world-renowned status for its cuisine, architecture, arts and museums. But Paris doesn’t offer world-class surfing. So when the Olympics returned to Paris, organizers had to look south—thousands of miles—to find a suitable surfing venue.
While gymnastics, swimming and track and field events are taking place all over the City of Lights, Olympic surfers will be competing for gold nearly 10,000 miles away in the French territory of Tahiti. Starting July 27, Olympic surfers will take to the waves of Teahupo’o, one of the most revered and fearsome surf spots on the planet.
The village of Teahupo’o — which means “wall of skulls” or “pile of heads,” referring to a sinister Tahitian legend of grotesque vengeance — is an ideal spot for a surf break, with a backdrop of verdant mountains rising above black-sand beaches and bright blue curls. The combination of South Pacific swells and an underwater trench near the beach creates spectacular waves.
“It’s probably one of the most rewarding and dangerous waves in the world,” U.S. Surf Team member Griffin Colapinto told Yahoo Sports earlier this month. “You can either have the best experience of your life or die, but it’s an absolutely beautiful place.”
Teahupo’o is also called “The End of the Road”, and for good reason: there is little civilization this distance from France, and that means there is very little between the surfer and the ocean.
“Tahiti is so far away, in a reef channel in the middle of the ocean, that there will be no spectators on the beach,” Carissa Moore of the U.S. team, a gold medalist in shortboarding, said in April. “There will only be people in boats, and there can only be so many boats in this little channel.”
A unique combination of wind, geology and ocean currents make Teahupo’o one of the most challenging surf spots on the planet…and that’s without even considering the dangerous reefs just beneath the waves.
“If you hit a coral head, they’re actually little knives,” Colapinto says. “If you hit one, you’re guaranteed to cut yourself. If you hit your head on a coral head, it’s not going to be a good thing.”
As surfers challenged the big waves of Teahupo’o For centuries, the island’s secrets were kept secret by the insiders. The first organized competitions didn’t take place until the late 1990s, and Teahupo’o’s sometimes dangerous waves quickly gained legendary status. A “Code Red” swell at a 2013 competition was so strong that the competition was delayed to protect the surfers’ safety:
Teahupo’o’s waves are typically between two and three meters high and are covered in large tubes of water that form when the crest of the wave crashes into itself. Surfing a tube is a transcendental experience… and a perilous one.
“It’s a wave that deserves that respect, that deserves that time,” Moore said. “You can’t just show up and blast out there. The best surfers on that wave have spent years, years getting crushed, years falling, years being stuck in the lagoon and ending up on the other side of the reef. In the end, it all adds up to what you see, which looks easy.”
What’s it like to take a barrel ride at Teahupo’o? Let Tahiti’s Kauli Vaast, who may have traveled the shortest distance between his home and the Olympic site in history, show you:
The Teahupo’o wave can be humbling, even dreamlike in its power. For surfers who see their relationship to water very differently than a basketball player does to a court, Teahupo’o offers a chance to touch the spiritual. Teahupo’o, surfers say, demands respect, rewards those who show it and humbles those who don’t.
“We have all probably witnessed the power of Mother Nature and Mother Nature’s ability to mana“, as they say in Hawaii,” Moore said. “You can’t get involved. It’s very, very humiliating. The minute you don’t respect Mother Nature, she’s going to run you over the edge, because you’re going to be like, ‘Hey, no, you’ve got to take your time, pay your dues and be there. . . . If you’re not there, if you’re not respectful, then you’re not going to get that wave, and you’re going to really get beat up. ‘”
The particularly isolated nature of Teahupo’o That means few spectators will be able to watch the competition in person. Visitors will be able to watch from nearby boats, while judges will observe from a new tower buried in the reef, which has sparked heated controversy. The village has fought fiercely against plans to build new roads and housing for the community for the Olympics, hoping to maintain Teahupo’s idyllic character. When a barge carrying construction materials to the area damaged a reef in December, local activists forced Olympic organizers to reconsider their plans and scale back overall development.
Surfing is an integral part of the island and the people of Teahupo’o are very fond of surfing, so much so that some Olympic athletes will stay in private homes throughout the island. Others will be based on a cruise ship offshore.
“The people there are very humble and incredibly welcoming,” Colapinto says. “It’s a far cry from what we’re used to, because usually you’re just like, ‘Oh, get an AirBnB, and you never meet the family that owns the house.’ But here you’re actually staying with the family on their property. You just want to make sure you’re a good guest, take out the trash, and keep everything clean and organized.”
Moore will be staying with a family who has become a close friend. “We have the most beautiful view of the place from their backyard,” she said. “I’m just so grateful. All the families there are so lovely. The people are just incredible. It reminds me a lot of home, they all have the Aloha spirit and really welcome you. … It’s the best way to experience a place, through a local’s eyes, the local food and their home.”
Colapinto and Moore both admit it will be a little strange being so far away from the Olympic spectacle, but they and their host families plan to have their own little Olympic celebration.
“I’ve heard rumors that we might have a little parade just for surfers at End of the Road,” Moore said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but whatever it is, I’m going to dress up.”
“When you think about the Olympics, you think about everything that’s going on, the opening ceremonies and all these different athletes that are everywhere. But we’re totally isolated from all that,” Colapinto said. “It feels like it’s not the biggest event of our lives, because we’re kind of traveling. But when you look at it from this perspective, it’s probably going to feel crazy and, like, the biggest event in the world.”
“We’re definitely going to do live broadcasts so we can watch the Games,” Moore added. “That’s what we did in Tokyo as well. We didn’t get to watch the opening ceremony, but we all got dressed up and had a little full ceremony at home. Then we watched everybody on the screen, so I definitely want to watch swimming, track and field and obviously gymnastics.”
Surfing is scheduled for July 27-30, with the next six days set aside to allow for the best possible conditions. Although Colapinto will be in Tahiti for the entire event, he has plans to travel to Paris.
“I thought if I won gold, I would go,” Colapinto said.