Teahupo’o Surf Camp: Road to Paris 2024 is a new documentary about seven Olympic hopefuls in Tahiti. Photo: Olympics.com
Surfing’s inclusion into the Olympics hasn’t exactly been an addition everyone agrees on. That old slogan “if you don’t surf, don’t start” is relevant here, because a big issue that many have with surfing becoming more mainstream is that lineups will only continue to get more and more crowded. But if you surf, you’re one of the crowd, and the Duke wanted surfing in the Olympics because the Duke wanted people to experience things that made them happy.
Surfing’s preeminent historian, Matt Warshaw had this to say to Surfer Magazine a few years ago.
“Thought I was done being pissed off over the 100-year mainstreaming of this wonderful sport,” he said. “Thought I was old enough, and far away enough from Orange County, to not much care. But the thought of surfing in the Olympics brings a familiar dab of bile to my throat. Can we just all agree to pretend, for a little while longer, that surfing is a unique thing to do? That this difference has in fact always been its strength?”
The cards have been laid now, though, and surfing is part of the Games. This year, despite much outcry and bad press and reef damage, Olympic surfing will be held at Teahupo’o, a wave that, when it’s really working, tests the mettle of any surfer.
With the Olympic Games just around the corner, the Olympic Channel created a new documentary called Teahupo’o Surf Camp: Road to Paris 2024. It follows seven hopeful surfers aspiring to achieve their Olympic dreams.
Billy Stairmand (New Zealand), Cody Young (Canada), Lucca Mesinas and Sol Aguirre (both Peru), Leilani McGonagle (Costa Rica), Alan Cleland (Mexico), and Tiara Van Der Huls (Netherlands) are the focus of the 40-minute film. They’re coached by local surf legend Tereva David as they get their feet firmly in the wax in preparation.
Editor’s Note: Teahupo’o Surf Camp: Road to Paris 2024 is available for free on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and on the official Olympics apps for mobile and connected TV devices.
