The man knows this wave. Photo: Ben Thouard//Red Bull Content Pool
Paris 2024 marked the second Olympic experience for Tahitian surfing legend Michel Bourez. At Tokyo 2020, he was a competitor, but for Paris 2024 he took on a new role as a reporter for France TV. Instead of riding the death-defying tubes that we saw here last week, Bourez was on land with the rest of us mere mortal members of the press, watching on a screen with a microphone in his hand. He conducted the post-heat interviews, leveraging his relationships with the athletes and unrivaled knowledge of the wave.
Thus, I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with one of the most respected surfers on the island, now a fellow member of the media. I chatted with Bourez, aka “The Spartan,” about the Olympics’ impact on the village, how he has adapted to working as a reporter, his picks for gold, and his influence on the decision to delay the finals.
In your eyes, how was the Olympic experience different from all the other surf events that have taken place here in Teahupo’o?
It was a big change for everyone, especially for the local community. There were more cops and it’s way bigger than the Championship Tour event. Everyone had to have a pass to walk through a (checkpoint). It was super strict – (the organizers) had to do that to be aware of danger that could come. It’s just eight days in a lifetime. Everything will go back to normal now.
What were the biggest advantages and disadvantages of having the Olympics here in town?
We’re used to seeing a comp here for the CT event. But for the CT, we see the same surfers – the best in the world. The difference is, at the Olympics, we can see locals like our new gold medalist Kauli getting good results, which just proved the level of surfers here in Tahiti. Vahine as well – people you don’t see on the tour. Even the Peruvian guy, Alonso Correa, he’s still in it. For me, it’s big because the Olympics are huge everywhere in the world and it’s good to represent your country.
As far as disadvantages, I don’t see any. Maybe the fact that we were really far away from Paris, so when we were surfing it was nighttime in Paris. There were not as many people that could watch surfing because of the time zones.
I went surfing with the boat driver who was hired by Team China. It sounded like he made some pretty good money. Do you think the Olympic investment filtered down to all the local people?
For sure. (Usually) we only have the CT event, so everyone is hired for that. When the Olympics came everyone found a job. It doesn’t matter who you were. You could work for the Olympics. If you have a boat, you could rent it for eight days, at least. It was such a huge opportunity for the local community.
As the Olympics leave, what do you think the legacy will be (other than the new tower)?
At the river mouth we have a new bridge and everything is so much cleaner over there. People don’t realize, but the river mouth wave for the kids is even better. Since they’ve been working on the river the wave is way more fun because there’s more sand. All the kids are having way more fun surfing at the beachbreak when there’s a south wind. When you talk to the kids, they have been frothing for the past couple of days. They can do three or four turns. It’s pretty sick. They don’t need to go further than just walking to the beach to surf. However, I feel like there’s still something that we could work on for the future – maybe build a skate park or work on the school for the kids. The school is pretty old, so it’s something that we can improve.
Working as a reporter for France TV instead of surfing, how was your experience on the other side of the curtain?
It was different. Post-heat interviews are always the same questions. “How was the heat? How was the nine-point ride?” But sometimes you want to answer different questions. For example, “how calm do you remain when it’s big?” Things like that, things only we surfers who have been out there would understand. That’s something I tried to bring when I was interviewing.
What was the most challenging part of being a reporter?
Since the French are hosting the Olympics this year, (France TV) pretty much picked whoever we want (to interview) first. We got the full (emotion of the moment). If they weren’t happy or not, it doesn’t matter. So the biggest challenge was hiding my emotions. It’s weird because you want to be equal with everyone, but at the same time, it was hard for me to remain calm when my friends were winning.
What was your favorite storyline?
Kauli and Johanne Defay, of course! Johanne beat Vahine Fierro, the favorite, and she beat Carissa Moore, too. (Carissa is) one of the best female surfers ever and she won the gold in Japan. Johanne won bronze and Kauli brought home gold for Tahiti. Without a doubt, they were huge stories!
Now that you’ve had time to digest the epic swell for the opening of competition, what was your reflection on that day?
It was insane. It was as good as it gets. When we compete that’s the kind of waves we want. You want it to be big and scary and offshore. That’s what everyone wants to see at Teahupo’o. When you saw Gabriel Medina getting almost a 10 – for me that was a 10 – it was the craziest drop he’s done and the biggest wave of the day. It’s exactly what we want. And we saw that one picture of him kicking out after that barrel. That made the news everywhere in the world. I heard he gained 1.5 million followers on Instagram. It’s huge. We love that. We want that for surfing because if surfing gets bigger, everyone gets paid more. It doesn’t matter if you’re a surfer or not. If you follow surfing one way or another, you’re going to grow with it.
Were you used much as a consultant in the planning for the Games?
Yeah. I was one of the guys they were talking to because (I know) how to make the contest good for athletes. I’ve done the Olympics and I’ve been on tour for a long time. I know the community and I know what’s going on. So pretty much everything that’s happened, I knew since the beginning. But it’s always good to have your input if you want the best for your place. I gave them all the information needed to have a successful event. For example, the swell (that came yesterday). We were not supposed to run on Monday because it (was originally a contingency day) and it’s super expensive to run. I talked with everyone around. They were saying, “Michel, I’m not the guy that makes the decisions if they run or not.” I was like, no, but we can influence the decision by just talking to them. If they want the best surfing event ever, they should wait for Monday. Overall, it was a great event for the Paris Olympics and especially for Tahiti.
