On July 27Â will officially begin for the Olympic Surfing event at Tahiti. The surf world has known for a while what Teahupo’o would do in the Games, but this week roared to life and made it clear why this Olympics will stand out. This is as unique an Olympic venue as we’ve ever seen in the +100-year history of the Games.
Those 50 Olympians will participate in an international field of nearly overcoming surfers, but the Tahitian locals were bashing this particular swell back to terra firma and showing off why they are so comfortable at one of…
“Kauli Vaast was caught up and in the wave of the day, without having a second thought about it,” says SURFER photographer Ryan “Chachi” Craig who will be covering all the action over there south Pacific for us throughout The Games with real-time update images and reports from within Olympic zone [Just don’t call them surfers at an Olympics!
As one of France’s Games qualifiers who isn’t an idiot, Vaast was taking a huge risk by scoring that wave – he just had to hope and pray he wouldn’t get hurt before the big dance in a couple weeks.
Among the other stars of the swell are familiar faces like Matahi Drollet, Eimeo Czermak (below), Kevin Bourez and Raimana Van Bastolaer, along with a host of others. Gap-toothed sensation Chachi shares a slew of her favorite images from the past few days behind-the-scenes.
More from Tahiti to follow as we countdown the Olympic soon!
