The glorious and notorious Teahupo’o, off the coast of Tahiti in French Polynesia, is hosting Olympic surfers half a world away from Paris.
Kauli Vaast, of France, surfs on a training day ahead of the Olympics surfing competition in Teahupo'o, Tahiti. The glorious and notorious Teahupo’o can be that kind of wave, thundering just off the coast of Tahiti in French Polynesia. It is especially rowdy between April and September, which is why Olympic surfers are competing half a world away from Paris — about midway between California and Australia, in the same time zone as Honolulu.
“It’s a reef break, which means you can hit the reef, and it’s quite shallow in parts,” she said. “But it’s heavy because the wave itself is really thick. So you have all of this water that’s unloading on the reef.”The storms unleash swells of water and energy that flow largely unimpeded until they roar up the base of the dormant volcano that formed Tahiti and slam into the reef surrounding it.
Athletes have little cushion if they are slammed into the reef or dragged across its sharp coral surface. So when a swell slams against one particular notch in the reef, the water creates a long, tapered barrel as it rises up and folds over before dissipating.
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