Kauli Vaast returns to Teahupo’o after Olympic gold; no cameras or spectators
Olympic surfing champion Kauli Vaast sets sights beyond Teahupo’o while keeping Tahiti spirit close to heart
Olympic surfing champion Kauli Vaast sets sights beyond Teahupo’o while keeping Tahiti spirit close to heart
Winning Olympic gold at “The End of the Road” was just the beginning for Kauli Vaast. The Tahiti native spoke to Olympics.com about his quest to become an all-around surfer and two special days he enjoyed on his home wave since becoming the Paris 2024 champion.
There were no cameras, no spectators and no fellow surfers when Kauli Vaast returned to Teahupo’o for the first time since he won an Olympic gold medal there.
Teahupo’o was a home wave, as familiar to Vaast as the grassy trails around his house, and his favourite, yet the Olympic surfing champion waited six months before he went out on it again. Not seeking to recreate that euphoric golden day at Paris 2024 , instead Vaast wanted to experience why he fell in love with the wave – and surfing – in the first place.
“I didn’t surf Teahupo’o for six months after the medal because I never had time and even when I was at home, no waves were there and I was like, ‘I don’t want to go surf Teahupo’o if it’s bad. I want to go there when it’s gonna be perfect ’. Sunny, super perfect, no one out. And that’s what happened six months later,” Vaast recalled.
“I was really grateful and thankful and happy to finally be back there, and didn’t even fall that session, so I felt blessed .”
It was a fairytale ending when Vaast won gold on Teahupo’o on 5 August 2024 , the pride of Tahiti achieving his career’s biggest victory on a wave he started surfing at eight years old alongside his father.
Even before Olympic gold, Teahupo’o and Vaast were often mentioned in the same sentence with the media asking the local surfer to lift the veil on the infamous and nearly mystical “Wall of Skulls” . After the victory, his career became almost synonymous with it.
Now Vaast is trying to change that.
Having conquered menacing barrels, the 24-year-old has set off on a quest to become a more complete all-around surfer, one who also excels on beach breaks and wave pools , while still staying true to the wisdom and spirit of his home islands.
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Kauli Vaast has experienced a rollercoaster of emotions on Teahupo’o, from the fear he felt surfing the infamous reef break as an eight-year-old to the joy that overwhelmed him when he won an Olympic gold on it at 22. Two years on from that triumph, the surfer said that becoming an Olympic champion has not changed him as he remains the “same kid” who enjoys his sport, stays humble and believes that anything is possible.
Kauli Vaast: From barrels to beach breaks and wave pools
Growing up in Tahiti, Vaast was aware early on that his backyard wave was extraordinary.
“Everything can happen at Teahupo’o, be bad or be amazing, so you just got to be careful and be humble, be respectful to this area, this spot, this valley, this little village,” Vaast said. “ A lot of energy over there , so you got to be respectful.”
Born in Vaira’o , Vaast surfed Teahupo’o for the first time at age eight – the same age he first travelled outside French Polynesia on his own, making a nearly 24-hour trip to surf in Hossegor and Capbreton , France.
These trips were Vaast’s first experience of surfing beach breaks and the contrast to Teahupo’o was stark.
“The water there, it’s so cold compared to Tahiti," he said. “I was like, ‘Wow, what just happened?’
“I’m still having a hard time sometimes when I go there, even now. It’s something special, especially when you come from an island where it’s super hot and humid and paradise. When you go there, sometimes you get rain, wind on shore, stormy days and then the water is super cold, the air is super cold, so it’s totally different.”
Still, the rough weather was not enough to discourage Vaast from returning to those waves over the following years.
And while some of his other trips have taken him to more surfer-friendly destinations like Hawaii , where warm ocean swells break over coral reefs similar to Teahupo’o, Vaast was determined to get out of his comfort zone and master point and beach breaks too.
His tenacity is paying off this year. All three of Vaast’s top 5 results during his debut WSL Championship Tour season came on point or beach breaks: Snapper Rocks on Australia’s Gold Coast, El Salvador’s Punta Roca , and Praia de Itaúna in Brazil.
Kauli Vaast won a silver medal at the 2025 ISA World Surfing Games on Punta Roca, a right-hand point break.
The next, and even bigger, challenge for the Tahitian surfer is wave pools.
Vaast received four wildcards to compete in the Tahiti Pro before he became a Championship Tour regular, but last season marked the first time he got a wildcard to a second stop, too – Surf Abu Dhabi Pro , the only competition on the current tour that is held at a wave pool.
“It’s pretty crazy to consider surfing a wave pool. I never thought about it when I was a kid , but now it’s happening. Now we have competition in there so it’s a really different vision of competition,” Vaast said. “When you want to surf a wave pool and you want to perform, you got to train really, really hard and have a lot of hours of training in the wave pool to perform because it’s the same thing every time so you got to have your combo ready.”
Asked to rate waves in terms of preference, Vaast’s answer was not surprising: “Big barrels, beach break, and then wave pool”. And while being versatile on all types of waves is a hard skill to learn, the Olympic champion is not shying away from the challenge.
“You got to perform on every single type of wave in the ocean and in the wave pools, so it’s important to spend time training in both conditions,” he said. “You got to be as good as you can get to do this, to be as ready as you can.”
Kauli Vaast got a warm reception at Champions Park when he went to Paris after winning Olympic gold in Tahiti.
Tahiti state of mind: “You have to be happy, it’s a rule”
The quest to master all types of waves is not always a smooth journey and when setbacks inevitably arise, Vaast’s ultra-competitive nature can make them hard to move past.
“I hate losing, so when I’m having a shocker, I get crazy ,” he said. “Perseverance is something that I’ve been working on. It’s hard, but I’m getting there. I’m trying to calm myself.”
The Pacific Islands mentality comes in useful when trying to find that state of calm.
“Coming from Tahiti, you cannot be mad. You just have to be happy ,” Vaast said with a laugh. “It’s like a rule.”
While nowadays athletes often turn to sports psychologists to sharpen their minds, Vaast also has thousands of years of Māʼohi wisdom at his disposal, relayed through his parents Gaël Vaast and Natou Thupalua , and his mentor, the “boss” of Teahupo’o Raimana Van Bastolaer .
Much like the lifestyle on the islands, those words of wisdom are simple: “Working, just working. When you have goals, never give up and if you want – you can . That’s a good example in everything, can be in your career or can be in life. It’s the same.”
Travelling around the world for much of the year, Vaast always savours the moments when he returns home. Once near his house, he doesn’t even take the time to get his bags from the car before he is running to see his family and then out to the wave where it all started.
“I just leave it in the car, everything,” he said. “And I just see my family, jump on my boat, grab my board, grab my speargun or my fishing gear and just go fishing and live my life as a kid .
" Olympic champion, I don’t think it changed me . I don’t want it to change me at all. I just want to be the same. I’m just trying to be the same kid as I was and try to be humble."
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Witness Kauli Vaast’s journey from his childhood Tahitian shores to the world stage. Surrounded by his family and long time friend and mentor Jeremy Flores, he refines his craft at Teahupo’o impressive pipe where he will compete on hometurf for an Olympic Gold medal in surfing. Driven by passion and cheered on by those who believe in his dream, he balances the thrill of competition with the warmth of a unique community.
Reliving Teahupo’o magic with the Vaast siblings
Vaast is the oldest of three siblings, followed by 21-year-old sister Aelan Vaast who made her World Surfing Games debut in 2025, and 19-year-old brother Naiki Vaast .
The trio not only enjoy surfing together but also fishing, which has turned into a competition between them as well.
“Everything I do is about competing. Competition and competing, especially with my brother and my sister,” Vaast said. “It’s good. It’s a good energy, fighting against each other. Even with my friends, everything is about competing… I’m the worst! ”
Now surfing on different circuits, the Vaast children cherish the rare moments when they can ride Teahupo’o together. One of their most memorable surf sessions came in August 2025 when Aelan and Naiki caught the best waves of their lives.
It was only at the end of the day, through the reminders on his social media, that Vaast remembered it was 5 August – exactly one year since he won Olympic gold.
“And then I realised, that morning I put my sister on the biggest wave of her life and then after, we waited five hours, and my brother got the wave of the day and it was the biggest wave of the day by far and then I was like, ‘Well, this is something special’ ," Vaast said.
“It was exactly a year after the same day – the fifth of August – when I won the medal and it was the same day they got the best waves of their lives, so it was a crazy day, a crazy moment.”
After a whirlwind year that saw Vaast surf in the Seine , fly in a fighter jet , and leave his footprints in clay on Anglet’s “Surf Avenue”, life had taken him back to the End of the Road.
And just as in the Olympic year, Teahupo’o warmly welcomed one of its own, sparking more magic for the Vaast family.
Kauli Vaast scored 17.67 points, including a 9.50-scoring wave, in the gold medal heat at Paris 2024.
Picture by Pascal Le Segretain