The world is about to get a surf show for the history books.
Surfing is just one of dozens of sports to be showcased in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but it will be unlike the rest, held nearly 10,000 miles away on a small island in French Polynesia.
The 48 surfers coming from 21 countries will battle at the surf spot, Teahupo’o, which translates to “wall of skulls” or “broken skull.” Other translations say it is called “The End of the Road.” They’ll ride inside the deep barrel that could mean the thrill of their life – but one slip and they could meet with the razor-sharp reef below and a mountain of a wave crashing down on them.
Team USA has five athletes competing, two men and three women – all who have the potential to take gold.
San Clemente’s Griffin Colapinto and Hawaii’s John John Florence on the men’s team are experienced World Tour surfers who have put in plenty of time at the surf spot. Florence is a master barrel rider who grew up at the famed Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu.
On the women’s team, Florida surfer Caroline Marks, who has called San Clemente home in recent years, will be one to watch. She’s currently the women’s world champion and last year won the Tahiti Pro at Teahupo’o.
Caitlin Simmers, of Oceanside, came in second spot in that same contest and, in recent years, has proven herself in big, barreling waves. Hawaii’s Carissa Moore rounds out the team, a five-time world champion who won the first-ever surfing Olympic gold medal in Japan.
Local surf fans will also be cheering on Kanoa Igarashi, of Huntington Beach, who will be competing for Team Japan. Igarashi is matched up in the first heat with Brazil’s Filipe Toledo, who also more recently has called San Clemente home. Toledo will be joined by three-time world champion Gabriel Medina, who has had much success at the surf break through the years.
Local French Polynesian surfers Kauli Vaast and Vahine Fierro, who has earned the name “the Queen of Teahupo’o,” call this surf spot their home break.
“Here, you will see the best of the best,” said International Surfing Association President Fernando Aguerre. “And the reality is, some surfers who are really good have made their way there by beating (world tour) surfers. It’s the most democratic way, the United Nations of Surfing. The level you see here is the top of the top.”
All of the surfers have had training time at Teahupo’o. The ISA did two surfing camps, Aguerre said.
Some surfers have been taking trips on their own to get more time on the wave, with plenty of practice clips from recent months circulating on social media.
All of the surfers have also been advised to wear helmets.
“In our training camps, everyone came with their own helmets,” Aguerre said. “It’s probably one of the first times we see a surfing competition where most people wear helmets.”
While Teahupo’o can get too big to even run, there are the days leading up to a mega swell or as it is dying down that could be ideal for competition, he noted.
“For me, in every competition, the health of the athletes is the most important,” he said. “I will be focusing on that.”
The surf contest window starts on July 27 and is open through Aug. 5. The contest needs three-and-a-half to four days to run; officials will decide when they think conditions are best.
Surf forecasters are calling for good surf to kick off the event window, with overhead sets and ideal wind on July 27, according to Huntington Beach-based Surfline.com. It might not be the building-size waves this surf break can see, but that could be better for those competitors less familiar with the surf spot.
Wind conditions look good, forecasts say, with glassy conditions in the morning, shifting to offshore winds by the afternoon.
July 28 will have an ease in size and more uncertainty with wind, said forecaster Kevin Wallis.
There’s even more uncertainty mid-week as a low pressure system moves in, but it’s likely there will be an increase in surf during that window, forecasters said.
Watch for the opening “Sands of the Nations” ceremony on July 26 in coverage of the competition. It’s where the surfers from various countries will get together to put sands from their hometowns in a glass jar, a tradition that started at the ISA World Games in Huntington Beach in 1996.
A judging panel will be scoring the waves on a scale of one to 10. For each wave, the highest and lowest scores are discarded, and the surfer’s final score is the average of the three remaining.
A surfer’s two highest-scoring waves are combined for an overall total.
There are five criteria the judges are looking at: Commitment and degree of difficulty; innovative and progressive maneuvers; the variety of maneuvers; the combination of major maneuvers; and speed, power and flow.
The format for Olympic surfing will give every surfer a chance to surf twice. The winners of Round 1 advance to Round 3 with the second and third place surfers going to an elimination Round 2.
From Round 3 onward, heats are one-on-one with winners advancing and second place eliminated. The surfing will progress through the quarterfinals, semifinals and into the bronze and gold medal matches.
Tahiti is three hours behind California, making it much easier for West Coast spectators to tune in to watch than the Tokyo Games. So if the surf contest starts at 7 a.m., viewers can watch at 10 a.m. here.
The time difference between Europe and Tahiti also works well. As people are sitting down for dinner and getting the recaps for the day’s events, the morning surf contest will just be starting.
Aguerre expects the surf portion of the Olympics to be the most widely-watched surfing competition in history.
NBC will be the television provider for the Olympics. Viewers without cable can log in through the streaming service Peacock.
More info: olympics.com/en/paris-2024/sports/surfing
