Stéphane Corbinien: “In Tahiti, we are preparing for the 2024 Olympics but also 2028 and 2032”
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For two years, the French Surfing Federation has been working on the Olympic deadline of 2024. It has set up a HQ on the Tahiti peninsula. A very spacious house is rented in Vairao to accommodate surfers from the French team coming to Teahupoo to train between two competitions. Courses have already been scheduled with the pros but also the younger generation, and a competition was even organized last June on the Teahupoo spot between the best surfers of the France group and the best locals.
The mission: to ensure that surfers dependent on the French Federation know how to master this wave so special that they rarely have the opportunity to surf, while preparing for the future with the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles but also 2032 in Brisbane, Australia. The point with Stéphane Corbinien, performance director at the French Federation, present at Teahupoo to supervise the four Frenchmen (Michel Bourez, Johanne Defay, Kauli Vaast and Vahine Fierro) competing at the Tahiti Pro.
2024 in preparation, 2028 and 2032 already in sight
“Very quickly we understood that it was necessary to allow the athletes of the France group to come to Tahiti in a privileged way in order to be in contact with the Teahupoo wave and to train in the best possible conditions. We have built a base where the athletes can come, in a certain comfort, and we can organize courses and train. Here, there is a diversity of waves which makes it possible to work on the different factors of technical performance in surfing. And we are progressing on the construction of our staff on site with a physiotherapist, a sports doctor, a coordinator, support, etc. It is a structure for 2024 but which has a vision for the following Olympics, 2028 and 2032. Paris is the priority of the day but we cannot not think of Los Angeles and Brisbane. »
Stéphane Corbinien (in the center in the background) with the French surfers last June in the house of Vairao. (A.Righteous/DR)
The Tahiti strategy
“If we want to have a chance of having athletes at the best world level in the future, we have to use all our assets, which are not en masse. Especially because there are no cities on the continent where you surf in warm water all year round. High level surfing is all about repetition. In metropolitan France, repetition is complicated. Tahiti is therefore part of our strategy. And when you come here, in contact with Tahitian surfers, it makes you question yourself. We are therefore in a period of change, organization of the future and modernization of the system. »
Use all territories and leave a legacy
“In some families, like the Vaasts (Kauli and Aelan) and the Fierro (Vahine and her two sisters), we have potential athletes for 2024 but also 2028. World competition is monstrous and imposing, so we have to have the intelligence to use all our territories, which is an enormous wealth and an opportunity. We are moving forward hand in hand with the Tahitian Federation, with conventions in particular, we are trying to advance the structuring of surfing in this territory by being a force of proposal and by bringing added value. And there is the vision of leaving a legacy of structuring in the short, medium and long term, it’s not a “one shot”, it’s also a legacy for the beautiful surf population here. »
The France group during training on the Papara spot. (A.Righteous/DR)
Supervise and support French surfers at Tahiti Pro
“We are here because there is Tahiti Pro with our athletes on the wave of the Games. We come to supervise, support and accompany them while listening to their specific requests. We continue to take as much raw material as possible linked to the site and the wave. It also means investing in a boat, with a pilot who knows the spot perfectly. It’s a sum of small details to ensure that athletes best understand the wave and the competition. This straight line to the Olympics is not a long calm river, far from it. »
2022 ISA Worlds (Sept 17-25) without too many illusions
“We are approaching these ISA World Championships in Huntington Beach, California (where the first tickets for the 2024 Olympics will be issued, editor’s note) as a “construction” stage, with a view to future Olympiads. On this wave, we are lucid: we know that if Brazil, the United States and Australia land with their armada – which should be the case – we will not be the favourites. We are challengers, we will do our best. The French surfers selected for these Worlds will be the highest ranked athletes in the Challenger Series standings. We will go as usual with a knife between our teeth and to get the quota (the best nation in the men’s and women’s ranking of the ISA Worlds will have a non-nominative place added for the Paris 2024 Olympics). »
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