Paris 2024 Olympics Surfing Competition: Residents Oppose Construction of Tower Due to Reef Damage

Local residents opposed the construction of a judging tower for the Paris 2024 Olympics surfing competition in Tahiti, as they claimed that the barge used to build the tower got stuck on a reef and destroyed coral close to the competition site.

Damaged Reef Amidst Construction

(Photo : Getty Images/Aurelien Meunier)

A group of islanders, surfers, and environmental NGOs called Save Teahupo'o Reef shared a video of the barge seemingly stuck on the reef, complete with crushed coral and a damaged propeller.

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Since October, the Teahupo'o locals objected to plans by the organizers of the Games to build a 14-meter (45-foot) aluminum tower that would allow up to 40 spectators, videographers, and judges to observe and score surfing at a famous break in front of the village.

The opposition associations alleged that instead of taking them on the barge on Saturday to demonstrate how it would function, the officials went there on Friday.

The footage eventually showed the barge being freed and brought back to the marina.

One of surfing's most revered locations is Teahupo'o, where large waves smash on the shallow tropical reef, creating flawless but violent tubes.

Teahupo'o has long been the site of a professional world tour competition, with judges sitting atop a low wooden tower on the reef, which the organizers claim is unsafe but which the people want kept for the Olympics.

The decision to hold the surfing Olympics in French Polynesia in July of next year will force participants to face some of the highest waves on the planet.

The venue promises more spectacular TV visuals than when the sport debuted at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Around that time, COVID-19 damaged the atmosphere and the waves at Tsurigasaki Beach were occasionally small.

"This does not feel good and does not seem worth it," Vahine Fierro, a local Tahitian who has qualified for the French Olympic surfing team, commented as she reposted the video.

Dialogue With Locals

The organizer of Paris 2024 stated that after sharing multiple documents detailing research, choices, and decisions on the tower, they were more eager than ever to keep up the conversation with neighborhood organizations and surfers.

It claimed that a previous protestor-produced social media video included corals that were absent from the location of the tower's foundations, which would be on a level, exposed section of the reef with "low ecological sensitivity."

It further stated that in order to conserve the coral outcrops, some would be carefully transferred outside the work zone.

A small number of demonstrators gathered on Saturday in front of the International Surfing Association's offices in California, which oversees the Olympic surfing competitions.

"The Olympic committees are sensitive - they don't want bad press - and we feel like this is a fight we can win and we want to raise awareness. We don't want any more drilling into the reef just for an elite judging tower," said protest spokesperson David Anderson.