Judges Tower at Teahupoo is ready for the surf event

The Teahupoo judges’ tower, which will make it possible to score and film the surfing event of the 2024 Olympic Games, on the Tahiti peninsula, in French Polynesia, has been completed, Christian Wang Sang, in charge, told AFP. monitoring the work.

According to Mr. Wang Sang, from the Tu’aro Nui cell, which manages major sporting events,the tower will be made available to the Tahitian Surfing Federation this Tuesday afternoon (Wednesday in Paris), before the trials on May 18 then the Shiseido Tahiti Pro, a stage of the world circuit scheduled for May 22 to 31. For the IJSPF (Institute of Youth and Sports of French Polynesia), which is the project manager, there is no longer any blocking point and all reservations will be lifted on Tuesday.

The construction of this aluminum tower in the lagoon sparked controversy at the end of last year, to the point that the president of French Polynesia, Moetai Brotherson, had for a time considered moving the surfing event of the Paris Olympics ( July 26-August 11) on another site. In December, environmental activists filmed a construction barge breaking off pieces of coral while navigating the area.

The Vai ara o Teahupoo association had collected more than 255,000 signatures against this new tower and big names in world surfing had called for the preservation of the site. But the protest ran out of steam after a nearly five-hour meeting, led on December 10 by President Brotherson with the main architects and opponents of the tower. The community had reduced the size and weight of the construction. She also had the work supervised by two recognized local surfing personalities, Pascal Luciani and Moana David.

“The tower is finished, technical tests were carried out this (Monday) morning by Bureau Veritas: electricity, fiber, everything works”, Pascal Luciani confirmed to AFP. He added that there was “no breakage during the work, nor any protests”. The Olympic surfing event will take place over four days, between July 27 and August 5. Two Tahitian surfers, Vahine Fierro and Kauli Vaast, will defend the colors of France.