Tahiti surf judging tower sparks protests against Olympic 'kooks'

Residents of the tiny Tahitian village of Teahupo'o say they are considering more protests to stop Olympic organisers building a three-story aluminium tower on a reef where the surfing competition for the 2024 Paris Games will be held.

Surfers around the world were thrilled when the perfect wave in front of Teahupo'o was chosen for the 2024 Games surfing event despite its location in French Polynesia, almost 16,000 km (10,000 miles) from Paris.

The idyllic lagoon-side village has long hosted some of the best contests on the professional World Surf League's (WSL) championship tour, using a modest wooden tower for judges on the reef that is dismantled after every event.

Paris 2024, which has highlighted its ambition to minimise the Games' environmental impacts, plans to spend nearly $5 million to build a much larger tower with toilets, air-conditioning and space for 40 people that it says is needed to meet safety standards.

Teahupo'o residents including Matahi Drollet, a famed surfer, say the new construction would cause significant damage to the coral reef, and risked impacting the marine ecosystem and the perfect wave itself.

"They have been using, judging, filming and doing lives from this actual tower for the professional WSL for the last 15 years," Drollet said in a video message during a protest against the tower this month. "The impact and the risk are too important for only three days of contest."

The WSL said it had used the existing tower "with the full support and approval of the Tahitian government".

"We believe it is important for Paris 2024 to engage with and listen to the local community as they contemplate their decisions related to the Olympic competition at this iconic wave," the WSL said in an emailed