Vaast knows the wave at Teahupo’o better than just about anyone, but only because he’s surfed it when it’s like this. Photo: YouTube//Instagram
Unless you’ve been living in a cave with a blindfold on and your ears plugged, you know that Kauli Vaast is now an Olympic gold medalist. But if you’re a new viewer to surfing thanks to the Olympics, you might not be aware of what Vaast is capable of in the kind of conditions that Teahupo’o can offer up.
The Olympics, while exciting, were held in manageable conditions. Never massive, but still difficult. Local knowledge at a place like Teahupo’o goes a long way, and it played a big role in Vaast’s win. On Friday 13, 2021, Tahiti was absolutely lit up by a monstrous swell. It was, according to Garrett McNamara, “one of the biggest swells to hit that bit of reef since Code Red in 2011.”
As is always the case when the wave at the end of the road gets huge, the lineup consisted of a few surfers who have a deep understanding of what the reef does to the waves that break over it. That understanding doesn’t only help when the waves get enormous, but when they’re Olympic-sized, too.
“When Kauli threaded an impressively long barrel worth 9.5 points to kick off the scoring in the men’s final, [Jack] Robinson later said that he thought his opponent was too deep,” wrote The Inertia‘s Evan Quarnstrom after Vaast won gold, “Vaast admitted he wasn’t sure if he would make it either, but ultimately his knowledge of the reef paid off.”
In the wave you see in this video (below), Vaast doesn’t make it. But the only way he learned enough about Teahupo’o to win gold was by attempting to surf un-makeable waves, and you can bet that even if no one was watching and no medals were being handed out, he’d be doing it anyway.
