The Tahiti Pro: Your Unofficial Preview for the 2024 Olympic Games

Hold onto your helmets, surf fans. As the World Tour rounds on one of the few remaining relics of the Dream Tour, the charts are showing a solid blob headed toward the End of The Road, Teahupo’o. In an event that will also double as a test run ahead of the Paris Olympics in late July/early August, there are back-to-back swells in the six-to ten-foot range set to hit smack bang in the middle of the waiting period, the first arriving around the 25th of May and the second on the 28th, 29th, easing into the 30th.

Watching the world’s best surfers test their courage and ability against one of the heaviest and most intimidating waves on earth has provided as many tour highlights as it has lowlights over the years. Owen Wright’s win over Gabriel Medina in 2019 following a near fatal brain injury announced his return to full health and capacity. Ex-Brazilian pro, Neco Padaratz’ refusal to take off on a wave out here in a World Tour heat was a low point for men’s professional surfing. Followed not far behind by reigning World Champ Filipe Toledo’s inability to get a result or even a wave of consequence out here.

There are plenty of Tour surfers in the mix with Olympic ambitions who will be aiming to get some reps in at the End of the Road when the swell jacks and the cutlery starts to rattle.

The Men’s 2024 Shisheido Tahiti Pro Preview

On the men’s side, USA medal hopes will rest on the shoulders of current world number one, Griffin Colapinto, and world number three, John John Florence (Hawaii), whose fortunes at the End of the Road have differed significantly. Despite demonstrating great aptitude at the world’s deadliest wave, Pipeline, along with nearly every hollow wave you can name, Griffin has never finished better than 9th in his six World Tour starts at Teahupo’o and desperately needs to find some form ahead of the Olympics.

John, on the other hand, has been a part of some of the greatest moments to go down in a jersey at Teahupo’o (including his show stopper semi-final with Slater in 2014 and has made multiple finals here, though never won the event. An absolute master in the juice, particularly of the Pacific variety, his skill set couldn’t be better suited to the wave, as demonstrated by a handful of the craziest waves ever paddled here in free surfs. The question remains whether he can lock in and put together an entire event for the win.

Standing in his way is good friend and sparring partner, Jack Robinson, the defending Tahiti Pro champ who is coming off a last-start win over John in the final of the Margaret River Pro World Tour event. The prospect of a head-to-head match-up between these two at maxing Teahupo’o is beyond dramatic, with the possibility of topping the greatest Tahiti Pro heat of all-time between John and Slater in 2014. A regular at Teahupo’o since he was just 16, Jack was raised on the sinister, ledged-out slabs of Australia’s Desert Teahupo’o, known as Tombstones, in Gnaraloo. He has a connection to waves of consequence that might prove peerless as his career wears on. He’ll be competing here with one eye also on the Olympics.

Then there’s Gabriel Medina, the 3x World Champ, who’s struggled to find form since he took a break from Tour and will be looking at Teahupo’o to break the drought. No one left on Tour has a better record at the wave. He’s a two-time Tahiti Pro winner who has surfed in an astonishing six finals out here, including in his rookie year, held in pumping conditions, which he won by defeating a primed Kelly Slater in the final. How he’s managed to cultivate this kind of record at Teahupo’o can be attributed in part to his hometown, Maresias, which is considered the Brazilian Mecca of hollow waves. 

The son of a single mother, raised on the breadline, Media was touted as a small-wave acrobat upon qualifying for the Tour, only to dominate in waves of consequence, with a further four runner-ups and one win at the Pipe Masters. His late-stage Olympic qualification via the ISA event in Puerto Rico will see him ratcheting up the pressure on his opponents after failing to medal in the Tokyo Olympics. A potent mix of cunning heat strategy, sublime wave selection, and confidence bred from the purest connection to craft and canvas have typified his performances at Teahupo’o over the years. Never looking stretched, never suffering injury, and barely wiping out, his cool, calm and calculated approach has to be envy of nearly every surfer on Tour at a wave that strikes fear into the hearts of all.

Medina might be the man to beat but the young buck still has to get past a wily old GOAT. As predicted, Kelly Slater has been granted a wildcard into the event his company, Outerknown, sponsors. He will line up against Jack Robinson and Moroccan Tour surfer and Olympic qualifier, Ramzi Boukhaim in round one. With five event wins here and countless stop-press moments, the GOAT’s record here is peerless. His last performance of note at this venue came in 2022, when he put on a clinic in waves of consequence to make the semi-finals before his charge faltered amidst deteriorating conditions against local wild card and Olympic qualifier, Kauli Vaast. The 52 year old will have extra motivation this go round after being cut from the World Tour earlier this month following 55 World Tour victories and 11 world titles. Count Slater out at your peril. He lives to put on a show, surf perfect albeit deadly waves, and break new ground as an athlete as he continues his assault on his most challenging opponent yet, Father Time.

Other Olympic hopefuls in the mix include Ethan Ewing, the Stradbroke Island point break specialist and sublime rail technician, who’s yet to prove himself in this arena. Coming off a fracture to his back while preparing for this event last year, he will need to forget that in a hurry if he’s to make the most of his Australian Olympic team birth. 

Cronulla-raised, Japanese-heritaged, Connor O’Leary, has plenty of game in heaving left slabs after spending his formative years hucking it over the ledge at local spots like Voodoo. Representing Japan at the Olympics in honour of his mother, a former Japanese pro surfer, he has spoken openly about his love of waves of consequence, particularly frontside (Pipe, Chopes, Cloudbreak). After narrowly surviving the cut, he’ll be looking to use this event to springboard himself up the ratings and into a medal-winning mentality.

The Women’s 2024 Shisheido Tahiti Pro Preview

On the women’s side, get ready to witness a new benchmark in heavy water heroics following the watershed performances of Molly Picklum, Betty Lou Sakura Johnson and Caity Simmers in macking conditions at the Pipe Pro earlier this year. What an illustration of the changing of the guard in women’s surfing it was. Carissa has wisely taken up a wildcard for this year’s Tahiti Pro, where she’ll be aiming to build a formidable backside tube game ahead of the Olympics. She’s also been using her time off Tour to put in some reps at the End of the Road, and learned a valuable lesson in the process, overcoming her fears to nab a serious Teahupo’o slab recently.  She’ll be going toe-to-toe with this next generation of fearless female athletes, however, which will be led by reigning world champion and defending Tahiti Pro champion, Caroline Marks.

Marks, who, along with Carissa and Caity Simmers, will represent the United States at the Olympics, has followed in the footsteps of several famous Floridians (Kelly Slater, the Hobgood brothers, the Lopez Brothers), having been raised in small beach break conditions only to achieve great success at The End of the Road. When Tahiti was put back on the Women’s Tour, she was among the first female athletes to head there and get in the reps to make sense of the harrowing lineup. It paid instant dividends with a quarterfinal finish in 2022 and an event win last year. Several all-time greats have struggled here over the years and employed the same approach, among them 3x World Champion, Mick Fanning, World Champion Adriano De Souza, whose hard-earned success at this venue opened up the possibility of winning a world title.

There are a handful of women that’ll be vying for a podium finish. Local slab specialist, Vahine Fierro, who has paddled some of the heaviest waves in the history of women’s surfing here, will be a serious threat to take out both this event and the Olympics, competing for team France (Tahiti being a colony). Her opening round heat against Caity Simmers and Australian Tyler Wright – another surfer with serious game in waves of consequence, particularly backside – will be compulsory viewing if the waves show up.

Simmers brings all the form in waves of consequence into this event following her win at Pipeline earlier this year. While her best waves were ridden frontside on Backdoor rights, a runner-up debut at Teahupo’o last year proves her credentials backside in waves of consequence, and she will be expecting a strong result here and at the Olympics.

When it comes to the best backside barrel exponent on Tour, however, it’s hard to go past Australian Molly Picklum and her hell for leather approach. Raised on the intimidating, imperfect slabs of the NSW Central Coast, where she was pushed hard by her older male mentors like Justen “Jughead” Allport, she has the technique to match the courage. Her perfect ten at massive Pipeline earlier this year was a hallmark moment in women’s pro surfing. And her 9.60 for a giant, sketchy, side-shore Backdoor chamber in the final wasn’t far behind. A fearless face plant in last year’s event speaks volumes for her attitude in conditions like this: succeed or die trying. Ranked third in the world with an event win at Sunset to her name, she is another major threat to take out this event and gold at the Olympics.