Kauli Vaast didn’t want to make the same mistake again.
Back in 2022 Kauli came into the WSL’s Teahupo’o final as a wildcard and a favourite. He’d just clipped Slater in the semi and surfed switch-foot on a couple to emphasise his prowess at his home break. Kauli certainly does not lack confidence, however, a few mistakes in that final, coupled with a cool-headed performance by Miguel Pupo, saw Kauli fall short in the biggest heat of his life.
If that loss haunted the French/Tahitian surfer, he showed no signs of it when he paddled out to chase gold in today’s Olympic final.
Kauli begun his gold-medal bout with back to back, funnelling tubes. The first was a full-throttle sprint from the top of the reef to the bottom. This was surfing’s 100m dash, pitting local boy Kauli against a curling lip he’d been racing all his life. His board was like a skimming stone, barely touching the water as he pumped through multiple sections inside the blue chamber. The end result was as close as the hundred metre final, but Kauli beat the lip by a nose, threw down a trademark bicep-flex and kicked out on cloud nine. Coach, Jeremy Flores was throwing combo punches in celebration as the judges delivered a handsome 9.5.
On the following wave Jack Robinson provided a rebuttal with a classic, backside barrel ride but the 7.83 would soon only put him just outside the combo zone.
Well-aware the job wasn’t done, Vaast bolted back to the lineup and swung into a second wave. On this occasion it was more about speed management, slotting and stalling to maximise tube time before laying down a couple of solid turns. Again it was an intimate knowledge of the wave’s speed and the angle of the swell that served him well. The 8.17 gave him an impressive heat total of 17.67.
A sleepy swell meant Robinson never got a chance to offer a final response; no matter how much the commentators tried to will a set into being, the real waves simply stopped for the remainder of the heat. Hunting a 9.84, Robinson had to ignore the wrinkles of swell that rolled through and wait for a wave substance. It never came and the Australian’s campaign ended with a whimper. A silver medal was a ‘sterling’ result but Robbo might have been inclined to curse the cruel sea that had deprived him of a real shot at the gold medal.
As it transpired, two waves in under five minutes would take a 22-year-old from a Pacific island town literally called ‘The End of The Road’ to Olympic stardom. It was a victory for France, but as much as anything a win for Tahiti and the local surfers who have come to conquer the surfing Everest at their doorstep. Not surprisingly you could hear Kauli’s excited victory hoots as far away as Paris. My what a party it will be tonight.
Although the French did not claim the double victory (Vahine Fierro was an early favourite and Johanne Defay won bronze), the bold move to host an Olympic event nearly 1600km from the host city had paid off in the most perfect way imaginable for France; with a gold medal.
In the building swell the women’s finalists, Caroline Marks and Tatiana Weston-Webb, were out of position for a couple of early sets. The first meaningful wave wasn’t ridden until the seventeen minute point, when Caroline Marks faded a bottom turn confidently on a sizeable set, before snapping under the lip for a 7.50 disappearing act. Marks has put some time in at Teahupo’o over the years and her experience was evident.
Tatiana rallied with a couple of stalled drops to the barrel to stay within striking distance, and with five to go she needed only a 4.68 to snatch the gold medal dangling loosely around Marks’ neck by a thin piece of string. Tati found a wave and slashed like a cane-cutter at the mid-size Teahupoo wall, eventually dry-docking her board in a final-desperate turn.
A painfully long wait followed as the hooter sounded and the judges deliberated. For minutes neither woman knew if they were the Olympic champion. But the final, Olympic chapter at The End of The Road ultimately showed that Weston-Webb had fallen just short of the required score. A jubilant Marks had joined Carissa Moore and Italo Ferreira as owners of the magic-double – a world title and an Olympic gold. You had to feel for Tatiana who has now been runner-up in the world title and the Olympics, and agonisingly close on both occasions.
In the bronze medal match up Gabriel Medina eventually roared to life against Peruvian over-achiever, Alonso Correa. Medina initially seemed a little disinterested, and was perhaps still lamenting his earlier, semi-final loss to Jack Robinson. That had been another sleepy heat, but if the waves weren’t monsters the egos collided like Mack trucks as Robbo literally paddled around Gabriel to lock in the first ride. A smirking Medina got a better wave afterwards, but Jack had made his intentions clear. He then posted an emphatic 7.83 before the waves went quiet and Medina could offer no response. In the Bronze medal match-up, Correa looked set for another upset and a medal. However, Medina eventually found the right angles, dropping a pair of 7.77’s as blazed on his eye-catching, Indigo board.
In the women’s Bronze medal heat, Johanne Defay’s smooth backhand attack was like watching melted caramel licking at the Teahupo’o lips. Brisa Hennesy had the potential to be similarly effective but it seemed she hadn’t recovered psychologically from the brain-snap moment that had earned her a crushing interference in the earlier semi against Tatiana Weston-Webb.
In the final scenes of the coverage we saw the competitors blasting towards land on the back of jet-skis to collect their medals. “What other sport do you get to that in?” quipped Barton Lynch, who surely belongs back in the booth for the WSL events.
That was it for the Teahupo’o, Olympic experiment. The whole thing had perhaps been given validation by one day of genuine Teahupo’o conditions. No one was badly injured, and the world got to see what competitive surfing looks like on a dramatic stage. What did they think?…
It was also the event where the great Carissa Moore officially announced her retirement, ushering in a new era of women’s surfing. Meanwhile, you might assume that Medina’s bronze medal and to a lesser extent John John’s early exit may propel them to continue competing so they can add that elusive gold medal to their list of accolades. If Olympic dreams and qualification requirements keep those two in the sport then it can’t be a bad thing. Se you in L.A. for the 2028 Summer Games.
