The Games are descending on an island paradise and the world’s most intimidating wave, with all the rules, regulations and Olympic-sized logistics that entails.
There’s a 126-metre, 254-berth Romanian luxury cruise ship on its way to Tahiti’s surfing mecca, which loosely translates to “place of skulls” in the local Polynesian dialect.
This year’s surfing event sets a record for being the farthest staged from an Olympic host city, and shapes as a very different affair for what is now a billion-dollar sport famed for its counterculture roots. Elsewhere, Olympic regulations are flowing thick and fast and surfers are still getting their heads around many of them.Credit:“It’s just going to be very different from a set-up and preparation standpoint to what we’re used to , not as much as freedom,” Australian gold medal hope and world No. 4 Molly Picklum says.“Normally we’re free to roam and can surf whenever we want...
Teahupo’o was just last week battered by a truly stomach-churning swell that produced heaving three-to-four metre waves, in which a young Australian photographer named Byron Mcloughlin was knocked unconscious and placed in an induced coma on one of its heaviest days.Smaller conditions are forecast for the Olympic event window at this stage. But no one is under any illusions as to what havoc the wave can unleash.
“Normally we can just drive a jet ski or a boat to the line-up whenever we want to watch heats and hang around Teahupo’o; the actual wave,” Picklum says.“This time there’s police and security guarding it every single day from the day we land. It’s just really strict.“We can’t get out there to watch heats and if you can, it is off the back of a boat that is deep in the channel, where you can’t even see the wave.
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