Put that away. The Olympic surfing scene is full of weird quirks. Among them are the following: in Paris 2024, surfing will take place 10,000 miles from the host city of Teahupo’o, Tahiti; unlike other sports at the Games, surfing will take place on an ever-changing playing field; and the competitors will be a motley crew of surfers, from the biggest names in the sport to surfers you’ve never heard of. Put another way, it’s not your normal surf contest.
However, there is another feature of Olympic surfing that is a little strange and maybe even frustrating to some people. The interval between heats is six minutes. And there have been a lot of unridden waves in that six-minute window. Many, many pleasant waves.
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The reason why? Well, when I asked the media team here on the ground at Teahupo’o, they explained that it was to introduce the surfers in the next heat (they stand in front of the camera for the broadcast before hopping off the boat and into the lineup), and for the judges to certify the results from the previous heat. But all those precious waves, especially considering the good days of the forecast and leading up to some not-so-good days, feels like a waste. No?
Kauli Vaast and Griffin Colapinto have a sniff at one before their heat begins.
SURFER photographer Ryan “Chachi” Craig remarked, “Like clockwork, the heat would end and one of the finest waves of the last hour would come through.” “Each and every time. During that six-minute window, one of the best waves appeared to be unridden. On the boats, all the photographers were chatting about it. To put it mildly, it was really annoying. Imagine the surfers; that’s just us. Consider what would have happened with the ladies if, on Monday, we believed the guys were crazy. The women may have run in the heaviest conditions in competition history if there hadn’t been a six-minute wait. And that Olympic period would have applied. Crazy.
The first two days of competition comprised 16 heats, eight for the men and eight for the women, to put it down in very simple math terms. That’s fifteen six-minute pauses, except the beginning of the day when there isn’t a break in between heats. The entire amount of time wasted? every day for an hour and a half. Before day three, that would have been six 30-minute heats added to the schedule.
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And with Caroline Marks and Siqi Yang being the first heat of the women’s Round Three, they would’ve potentially had the chance to send it over macking ledges on Monday’s day of days.
It’s no use crying over spilled milk. But, regardless, here’s a handful of those unridden gems from the past three days of competition to salivate over, and wonder what could’ve been.
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