How Gnarly Is the Security for Olympic Surfing? (Answer: Really, Really Gnarly)

Within minutes of entering the Olympic circus at Teahupo’o, Tahiti – the host for surfing at Paris 2024 – my bag had been searched no less than five times, my credentials checked by gun-toting guards, my body scanned and rescanned by metal detectors, and I was damn near tackled for pulling out a camera without the proper authorization.

I was surprised I wasn’t escorted into a back room and asked to squat and cough.

Ahead of surfing in Paris 2024, the tiny village of Teahupo’o, Tahiti, has transformed into a menagerie of security checkpoints, roadblocks, endless and clandestine white tents filled with screens and monitors, and cops. Literally, everywhere you go around the event site, there are crews of armed officers – monitoring, patrolling, and emanating an air of ennui, as if there’s not much for them to do, but if there was, they’d be at the ready.

There are even a few fully-armed military vessels idling not far off from the channel at Chopes, about a click away from the surfers and spectators. Why? Just in case.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Teahupo’o local Lorenzo Avventi. “It’s become way too much. It doesn’t even look like a surf contest anymore. It’s like a government showoff event. We can’t even go surf in front of the house, let alone Teahupo’o. It’s not good for the athletes. A good thing for them is to surf with the locals before the event to see where to sit, what to do, how to understand the wave. They’re getting none of that.”

“It’s become way too much. It doesn’t even look like a surf contest anymore."

The athletes, perhaps more than everyone, are under the strictest, most esoteric regulations than anyone else. Designated times to surf, drug tests, who they can and can’t talk to, etc. And the same goes for their families, who are here to support them.

“Since I’ve been here, I’ve been only able to see her once,” said Luana Silva’s mother. “We’re not used to this in a professional surfing contest. I haven’t even been able to go out and see her during the practice sessions. I like to watch. And during the actual event, I can only be out there during her heat. It’s weird to come all the way here not to be able to watch the whole event. But, you know, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. So, it’s worth it. Teahupo’o is such a mellow, remote, peaceful place. It doesn’t feel like that right now.”

And this is just Tahiti; it’s hard to fathom what the security operations look like in Paris. Perhaps my fellow journalists over there actually are getting the old prison-style squat-and-cough treatment before even thinking about entering the facilities.

Bless their souls.

For now, with the event window beginning in a couple of days (July 27th), it only seems like the security situation will continue to surge. And after the Olympics? Well, that’s a whole different – and, as of now – unknown story as to how it’ll unfold. Time will tell.

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