Olympic Surfing: Everything You Need To Know

The 2024 Olympic Games are underway in Paris, ‘the city of love’. However, surfers will be competing 15 700km west in Teahupo’o, ‘the place of skulls’. This sharp distinction between the names is indicative of the contrast between the two places. Teahupo’o, as beautiful as it may look, is very much a beast. At the foot of this volcanic Island lies one of surfing most revered stretches of reef. Swells march in from deep water and end their journey by crashing over the reef and into the channel. There’s not many waves in the world that surfers enjoy watching more than Teahupo’o. The thick, left-hand, gaping tubes make for some world class entertainment, especially when the world’s best surfers are the ones throwing themselves over the edge.

The Format

We’ve found out everything you need to know about this years Olympic surfing so that you don’t have to. The waiting period runs from 27 July until 05 August with competition expected to take place over five of the days. In the draw are 48 surfers, 24 men and 24 women.

The competition format is very similar to what we see in most WSL CT events. Round 1 consists of 8 heats with 3 surfers per heat. The 1st place surfer in each heat will advance to Round 3 while surfers who finish 2nd and 3rd will fight it out in head to head elimination match ups in Round 2. Round 3 will see another 8 heats but this time with 2 surfers per heat. The winners of this Round will advance to the Quarterfinals and the losers will be eliminated. From there, it’s head to head battles til the end – Quarters, Semis and then the Final. However, the two losers from each Semifinal will compete against each other for the Bronze Medal.

Olympic and country flags of those competing in Tahiti. (c) ISA / Franco.

The Forecast

It looks as though the event will kick off in good conditions. Overhead surf with favourable winds on Day 1 of competition. The swell looks to be easing off Sunday the 28th but could see a pulse in the afternoon. The next couple of days after that show signs of larger swell but onshore winds. The last few days of the waiting period show fun to mid size swell with favourable winds. All in all it looks as though we could see some entertaining days of competition but most likely nothing too crazy. That being said, Teahupo’o tends to pack some punch at any size and should still offer up some technical tube riding conditions.

Surfers Representing RSA

South Africa has three surfers in the mix, Jordy Smith, who will be competing in his second Olympic Games, as well as, Matt McGillivray and Sarah Baum who make their Olympics debuts. Jordy is the most experienced competitive surfer in the mens draw. He’s spent a lot of time working on his backside tube riding and will no doubt be aiming for that Gold Medal. Matt and Sarah are both machines in the tube and send it in any conditions. They’re both underdogs in their respective draws but we wouldn’t be surprised if either of them come home with a medal.

South Africans can catch all the action on SuperSport. Tune in daily during the waiting period around 8pm local SA time for the call. We’re expecting big things from the Saffa’s in the comp and rooting for them all the way!

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