Cruise ships used as floating Olympic Village – where? At the French Olympics in Tahiti. The SURFING event is not being held in Paris as they cannot guarantee the waves LOL – so, 15,000 km away from from Paris, French Polynesia is the place for that Point Break event. It is in the Pacific, visited on World Cruises by ships small enough to dock in the French Islands. Our tip for the winners and the surf jargon you might need are below.

TEAHUPO’O BAY

Teahupo’o was a quiet fishing village that has transformed to become a surfer’s paradise over the last ten years or so, but if the residents thought life had changed they will need to grip onto their cultural values after the idyllic small town is shown to the world this weekend. The nearest cruise port is Vaira’o near Matiti, but although some boast that it is the deepest bay in all of Tahiti, so even the world’s largest cruise ships are able to set down anchor and tender in – we found no ships due in the near future. This may be due to recent Polynesian regulations set on cruise ships to preserve the area. Only the smallest ships are allowed into many French Polynesian Islands – hence the Aranui 5. Matit is on the southwest coast of Tahiti about an hour twenty from Papeete. It is northwest of Teahupo’o. If you want to relax between events, there are many beaches, lagoons and fishing spots.

ARANUI POLYNESIAN CRUISE OPERATORS

The Aranui 5 cruise ship may not be one you know, but that will be the athlete’s home in Tahiti, not the French village of L’île-Saint-Dennis. Do you think they might have a ball onboard the ship? They might enjoy themselves so much that they can’t master the famed TEAHUPO’O waves.
The Aranui 5 is designed to offer all of comforts of a cruise liner, while operating as a supply ship. Dare I suggest a little like some ships in Norway. Aranui 5 is classified as a small vessel so has no problem anchoring in Polynesia. That is where the operating cruise line specialise. The ship accommodates approximately 230 passengers in 103 cabins, with 8 different guest decks and a sky bar. The French Flag flying ship looks a dream, and has a mix of staterooms and ‘dormitories’ that sleep 4 or 8. There may be a fight over the one Presidential suit.
Here is the company that runs the ship. https://www.aranui.com/us/the-vessel. click

POLYNESIA

If you are one of those who find youself watching curling, and going – how did that happen? Then the surf olympics might be the event to grab you. If you have not cruised to Polynesia, or the Pacific, and know little of Polynesia, then you might like to look at our film of the Polynesian Village in Hawaii.

Or surfing on the North Shore.

Our film of Tahiti   Click here for our cruise into Papeete

Our stop in Bora Bora    Click to our Bora Bora YouTube film and please subscribe

Or our tales of Fiji.  Click to the first or our many films of Fiji where we took the rock band Status Quo for Universal Pictures and have cruised into many times. Click Lautoka. Click Francis Rossi interview.

CRUISE POLYNESIA

When you have time, you might think of a world cruise. It is easier than competing as a surfer. The event starts this weekend, and this is a dangerous place to surf. Five deaths and countless injuries have been recorded here. The sharp reef is just below the surface of the water, and the 12 feet waves lift you and dump you back down if you make a mistake. Although this must make the French Polynesian locals the favourites, local surfer Briece Taere broke his back hitting the reef. All eyes are on the 24 women and 24 men take to the ocean.

SURF OLYMPICS 2024

Men’s Event tip – Born and raised in Tahiti, listed in the Red Bull athletes log, Kauli Vaast might just be the best up and coming all round surf talent in the world. He lives a stone’s throw from the Teahupo’o reef, and a five minute ferry tender to the cruise ship village. Will he be tempted to visit the ship or stay focussed on the wave.

Women’s Event tip – Vahine Fierro moved to Tahiti at the age of 14 as there was no high school on her island of Huahine. She leant to surf by the age of 2, and was showing competative talent by the age of 5. She won the World Junior Championship in Australia in 2018, entering as a wild card. We suggest you watch this wild surfer as keenly as he two surfing sisters will be. These young athletes are already world travellers and her favourite place is Morocco.

SURF TERMS

Here is a list of possible surf vocabulary you might hear while watching the Surf Olympics.

• Aerial – hitting the crest of the wave and leaving the water to fly through the air
• A-frame – the wave peak- a perfect shape
• Aloha – Polynesian greeting – “hello” or “goodbye”
• Amped – excited
• Backdoor – the hollow section behind
• Backside – riding back to the wave
• Bailing – enough – letting go of the board
• Barrel – tube-like curl of a wave
• Bogging – happens if the surfer’s weight is too far back, the nose of the board lifts up
• Bottom turn – surfer turns at the bottom of the wave to start trimming an optimal line
• Carve – a sharp turn on the wave face
• Chandelier – water falling in the barrel opening (can catch the rider)
• Charging – surfer is going for it hard
• Chop – bumpy ocean
• Closeout – wave breaks with no shape or shoulder
• Corduroy – the humps and dips of swells
• Crest – the top and highest point of a wave (kind of A)
• Cross step – footwork technique shuffling up and down the board
• Cutback – a turn to get the surfer back on the surf line
• Deck – the top of the surfboard
• Ding – broken board
• Doggy door – small exit out of the barrel
• Drop in – the way in to ride the wave
• Firing – the waves are amazing
• Flat – no waves
• Frontside – surfer rides facing the wave
• Green room – another word for tube or barrel
• Gnarly – awesome
• Goofy foot – surfer riding right foot forward
• Hang loose – Polynesian expression for easygoing
• Hang Ten – surfing with all toes on the nose of the board
• Haole – word for “foreigner”
• Impact zone – where waves break
• Kahuna – wizard, magician
• Kick out – a flash manoeuvre on finish
• Leg rope – or ankle leash to board
• Line-up – the start position
• Lip – curling part of a wave
• Over the falls – fall from the top of a wave
• Pearling – surfer is too far forward – nose dives underwater
• Pit – impact zone of the wave or hollow part of the tube
• Rail – edge of a surfboard
• Rip current/tide – a strong surface current of short duration flowing seaward from the shore
• Rocker – the curve of the surfboard bottom from nose to tail (viewed from the side)
• Shacked – getting barrelled
• Shaka -“OK”, ”great,” “cool,”,”alright”
• Shred – aggressive riding to use wave to the fullest
• Skagged by the rail – to be cut by the board fin (skeg) on wipeout
• Slab – a heavy reef break
• Soup – the broken foam of a sea
• Stall – surfer slows up to let the wave catch up
• Stick – slang for surfboard
• Trimming – finding the perfect surf line
• Trough – the bottom of the wave, the opposite of a crest
• Turtle roll – surfer flips the board over in front of an oncoming wave to get under it
• Wipeout – an unexpected fall off of a board (or rock classic)