Locals think the current judging tower is more than sufficient and want to save the precious reef. Photo: 2019 Tahiti Pro//WSL
The surfing competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics will go ahead at Teahupo’o and, despite local opposition, a new aluminum judging tower will be built. In a lengthy, detailed, 2,000-word press release emitted by Paris 2024, the Olympic Games organizers announced major updates in this ongoing saga: Teahupo’o will still be the venue, the tower blueprint will be scaled down, and the new tower will be built in the location of the current tower, but with new foundations.
Paris 2024 cited corrosion to the current foundations as the main reason they are unable to use the existing wooden tower arrangement. Built 20 years ago, they insist that using these foundations would compromise the safety of the staff and athletes at next year’s Olympics. They guarantee a 10-year lifespan of the new foundations, which they highlight as imperative for insurance purposes and the guaranteed legacy of the project for future surfing events.
The solution they reached includes reducing the area of the judging tower by 50 square meters (150-square-meters total, the same size as the old wooden tower), reducing the weight of the tower from 14 tons to nine (which reduces the depth of drilling), reducing the number of people in the tower from 40 to between 25 and 30 as with WSL events, finding a temporary solution for the internet fiber and electricity cables that can be removed after the event, and completely scrapping plans for potable drinking water and wastewater to be piped to and from the tower.
In the press release, Paris 2024 outlined the options that were on the table and gave reasons why the solution it chose was the most viable. For example, they claim building the new tower on the existing foundations was not selected because, according to their studies, it would have a more negative impact on the coral that has grown on the existing foundations over the years as opposed to moving the coral that sits on the adjacent parts of the reef in which they intend to drill. Other options that were discarded were putting the judges on land or a boat and building a new wooden tower.
After comments made by Tahiti’s president, brief rumblings swirled about hosting the event at a new location on the island. After today’s press release, those rumors have been squashed.
The new plans announced by Paris 2024 are fully in line with all the locals’ demands. The opposition was requesting that the Games organizers use the existing foundation and wooden tower as is, as well as utilizing solar power to avoid running cables from land. The demands that were indeed met include reducing the number of people in the tower and removing flush toilets that require plumbing. Local critics of the new tower construction told The Inertia that they were ready to “go all the way” to protect the reef and put a halt to the plans. An online petition to stop the construction has received 160,000 signatures and counting. Now we wait for local reaction: will locals view the new plans as a fair compromise, or will they continue to protest.
