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Paris 2024 organisers say “improvements” to a controversial judging tower at Olympic surfing site at Teahupo’o will be considered after local backlash and a petition signed by almost 100,000 people protesting its construction.
Olympic surfing’s debut at the famed Tahitian break has garnered international attention this week following peaceful protests regarding the planned construction of the tower, costing a reported US$5 million ($7.95 million), and the feared impact on the local environment.
Teahupo’o is one of the most iconic surf breaks in the world, and scene of a brewing stink over the Paris 2024 Olympics.Credit: Alamy
At the core of the protests is the Tahiti Paris Olympic committee’s plans to construct a $5 million aluminium judging tower in place of the temporary wooden structure that is currently used by the World Surfing League for the annual Tahiti Pro.
Plans for the new tower that have been put to locals outline facilities that can host 30-40 people, have air conditioning, toilets and high-speed internet, as opposed to the existing WSL tower that has capacity for 10-20 and the bare basics.
It is expected that the Olympic event – scheduled for late July next year – will be adjudicated on by a panel of the same WSL judges who rule on the Tahiti Pro from the existing structure.
A spokesman for Paris 2024 told this masthead that the “existing tower does not comply with the safety standards in force under French Polynesian law. It was this safety issue that led us to work, collectively, with the government of French Polynesia, on the planning for a new tower.”
Local opposition centres on plans for the tower to be built on top of a coral reef, requiring numerous support rods to be drilled into the reef and filled with concrete.
Tahitian pro surfer Matahi Drollet figured prominently in a peaceful 400-strong march last weekend protesting the construction.
Two-time world champion and Brazilian Olympic qualifier Filipe Toledo, French surfer Johanne Defay and surfing icon Kelly Slater are among those to lent support via social media, while a Change.org petition calling on organisers to use the existing WSL tower had garnered more than 99,000 signatures by Thursday afternoon.
“The risks are simple and nasty: destruction of the reef and a very bad impact on the marine ecosystem that could stress the whole marine life and spread what is called the ciguatera,” Drollet said.
Matahi Drollet, pictured surfing a Teahupo’o monster at the age of 16, is leading protests against the planned construction of a new judging tower.Credit: Ted Grambeau
“Ciguatera is a disease [a neurotoxin proliferated by dead coral] that poisons all the fish. Teahupo’o is a town of fishermen who eat their own fish and live off selling them. And last but not least, it could modify or change our wave and in the worst-case scenario, make it disappear in a few years.”
Organisers of the petition – Save Teahupo’o – claim there has been little information about construction plans disclosed to locals.
There is also conjecture around whether an environmental impact study was conducted by Paris 2024 organisers.
A spokesman pointed to the French Polynesian government in 2022 hiring a consultancy specialising in coastal and marine environment protection (CRÉOCÉAN).
“To date, the project conforms fully with the consultant’s recommendations which are to: erect and dismantle the new tower on the same site as the existing tower, build the new foundations directly adjacent to the old ones, in a low-sensitivity area and design the new foundations using a process commonly used in French Polynesia to create foundations in a coral environment.”
Tim McKenna, an Australian-born photographer and Tahitian resident for the past 20 years, said plans for the aluminium structure to be torn down are also a cause of significant local angst.
“The fact it’s only for four days of [Olympic] competition is a real concern given the damage to coral and the 12 cement blocks the tower needs,” McKenna said.
Large swells have delayed drilling plans this week as an Olympics spokesman said, “Paris 2024 wishes to involve local associations to study all possible options to improve the current project, within the framework applicable in French Polynesia and to the specifications required for the Olympic Games.”
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