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academia and surfing

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advertising and surfing

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aerial

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alaia board

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Azores

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Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

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Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Beschen, Shane

Tahiti is composed of two circular islands, Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti, joined by the narrow isthmus of Taravao; it's part of the Society Islands, and the largest body of land in volcano-formed French Polynesia. Tahiti is renowned in the surf world for the big, tubing, powerful waves that break over its distant coral-lined reef passes. 

On the north coast— which receives consistent three to five-foot swells primarily during the November-to-February rainy months—popular breaks include the hollow rights at Point Venus Reef and the left at Papeete Harbor, near the capital city of Papeete. Tahiti's biggest and best waves are found on the south and west coasts, where four to eight-foot surf hits regularly between March and October, with 10- to 15-foot swells moving through on occasion. World-class breaks here include Taapuna, Maraa, and Vairao: all are exploding, expert-level, left-breaking tubes. Teahupoo, another left, located just southeast of Vairao, has been regarded since the late 1990s as the world's most challenging and dangerous wave. (The small island of Moorea, located nine miles northwest of Tahiti, is home to nearly a half-dozen high-quality surf breaks.) 

Daytime air temperatures in Tahiti range from the mid- 70s to the mid-80s throughout the year, and the water temperature remains at or near 80. Immensely powerful waves, along with jagged, shallow reefs, are the main surfing hazards in Tahiti; a local surfer was killed at Teahupoo in 2000 after being driven into the reef by a 10-foot wave. Tahiti's surfing history, like that of Hawaii, stretches back hundreds of years. 

British explorer Captain James Cook was the first to write about Tahitian surfing, in 1777, noting that the sport was practiced on bellyboards and canoes, mostly by royalty. Stand-up riding, however, didn't develop in Tahiti as it did in Hawaii. English missionaries arrived in Tahiti in 1797 and surfing was soon discouraged as being anti-Christian; the sport didn't reemerge here until the 1950s. (Western-borne diseases meanwhile ravaged the island in the early decades of the 18th century, with the native population dropping from an estimated 20,000 to 6,000.) 

Tahitian waves were introduced to the surf world at large in 1964, when Bruce Brown toured American beach cities with an early edition of The Endless Summer, his new movie, which included a section filmed in Tahiti. But Brown and his surfers only rode the poorly shaped inshore waves, and didn't venture out to the reef passes. The Tahiti Surf Club was formed in 1969, and held the first Tahitian Championships that year at Papara, a beachbreak on the south coast. The Taapuna Surf Club and Central Surf Club were formed in 1973 and soon combined with the Tahiti Surf Club to form the Polynesian Committee of Surfriding, headed by local surfer Edgar Galenon. Papeete local Arsene Harehoe won 15 Tahitian juniors and men's national titles between 1973 and 1989 (and opened the island's first surf shop in 1982). Harehoe also mentored his neighbor Vetea David, who won the juniors division of the 1986 World Amateur Surfing Championships, then went on to a long and successful professional career. Heifara Tahutini won the men's division of the 1990 World Amateur Championships. 

Current Tahitian standouts include Manoa Drollet, Hira Terinatoofa, Alain Riou, and Nicolas Leetham. The Papeete-based Tahitian Surfing Federation was founded in 1989 by Papeete surfer Patrick Juventin, and since has overseen most local competitions, including the national titles. 

The Tahitian Pro, held at Teahupoo, debuted in 1997 as a second-tier world tour pro contest, and two years later became a championship tour event. By 2003, Tahiti was home to 12 surf shops and an estimated 3,000 surfers. Tahiti Waves, the country's first and only surf publication, was founded in 2001. 

The Tahitian surf is detailed in The World Stormrider Guide (2001), and has been featured in nearly two dozen surf movies and videos since the mid-'70s, including The Forgotten Island of Santosha (1974), Amazing Surf Stories (1986), Tahitian Dreams (1989), Quiksilver Country (1996), and Holy Water (2000). 

Tahiti

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Features

Videos