Women Who Travel Podcast: Inside Tahiti's Olympic Surf Scene

01.08.2024 - 23:33 / cntraveler.com / Megan Spurrell

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The Paris Olympics are in full swing, but far away from the main stadium, the world’s greatest surfers are taking on Tahiti’s biggest wave as part of the competition. Lale catches up with Condé Nast Traveler’s Megan Spurrell, who flew out to the French Polynesian island to witness the power of the wave firsthand—and speak to the women surfers who are riding it in the hopes of winning gold. (After listening, read her full story here.)

Lale Arikoglu: Hi there, I'm Lale Arikoglu, and this is Women Who Travel. Today we're going to Tahiti, a place that's so magical, it's hard to believe it exists. I'm talking to Condé Nast Traveler's very own Megan Spurrell who went there to meet the surfers who are taking part in the Olympics.

Megan Spurrell: My hammock is blowing in the wind. Someone just went by on a boat. It is the picture of... To me everything looks like a '90s screensaver of a tropical destination. It's so gorgeous. If there was a trip to have cliches on, it's here.

LA: On summer weekends when we're both at home in New York City, Megan and I go surfing in the Rockaways. She is much better than me. She comes from Southern California, from Palos Verdes where there's a huge surf scene that she's passionate about.

Growing up in London, I did not have the same experience. For Megan, one of the most fascinating parts of this assignment is that the event is the furthest from the host city in Olympic history.

MS: The Olympics are going to be in a small village here called Teahupo'o on the island of Tahiti. And it became my dream and then reality to come and interview all the surfers and learn about the surf scene here. I mean so many people I've spoken to ahead of this trip don't even realize that part of the Paris 2024 Olympics are happening here, just surfing.

I love being in the water, so I think that's my first interest in just being around people who also appreciate that. And are excited to get out and have fun on the waves even though I am on such a different skill level than the people I've been around for the past couple of weeks.

LA: How easy is it to describe the surf scene in Tahiti? And what were kind of your initial impressions of it?

MS: Obviously the surf scene, if you're talking about the whole island, which kind of has a big section of the island and something that looks like a second island that is still connected. You can drive around the whole thing. On the north and east side, it's a lot more, people are much more spread out. You'll see fewer grocery stores and you might see waves where there's one or two people surfing.

Then when you get to kind of the south and