Teahupo'o was added as a World Championship Tour location in 1999, during the early developmental years of the "Dream Tour" era. Throughout the mid-late-90s, the world-class waves like G-Land, Fiji, and Barra De La Cruz played the backdrop for some of the most iconic Championship Tour events in competitive surf history.
Save for Hawaii, in the decades prior to the addition of these locations to the tour, Championship Tour events were often held in subpar conditions, and in urban surf spots with less than stellar waves but the potential for huge beach crowds. Throughout the early-90s, surfers on tour pushed the then-ASP to develop a tour that featured "the world's best surfers in the world's best waves," and at the turn of the century there were real arguments to be made for Teahupo'o, Fiji, and G-Land being the world's best lefts.
On the back of the groundbreaking 1997 and 1998 Qualifying Series Gotcha Pro events, the Championship Tour first rolled up to the End of the Road in May of 1999. With Kelly Slater on the first what would be occasional retirements from tour, the Gotcha Tahiti Pro came down to a final between young Floridian goofyfoot Damien Hobgood and a blitzing Mark Occhilupo. Occy would go on to win the event, and carry the momentum to his first and lone-overdue World Title later that year.
The Greatest Of All Time, 11x World Champ, Kelly Slater with the most wins at Teahupo'o. - WSL / Will H-S
Kelly returned to tour in 2000 as Billabong took up title sponsorship for the event, and won at Teahupo'o with his first time competing at the Tahitian reef pass. Teahupo'o would eventually become a stop on tour Kelly would consistently put in some of his career-best performances over the ensuing 25 years, winning the event five times over that period, his last in 2016 at age 44, and establishing an impressive track record as the winningest surfer to ever compete at Teahupo'o.
The Tahiti Pro immediately became a near-universal tour favorite, both with surfers and surf fans, and is considered one of the most prestigious and well-respected events on tour.
Impressively, Gabriel Medina, Mick Fanning, Bobby Martinez, and Andy Irons all won the event twice. Underground tube specialists like Cory Lopez, Bruno Santos, Damien and CJ Hobgood have all taken home career highlight wins, as have Julian Wilson, Owen Wright, Miguel Pupo, Jeremy Flores, Ace Buchan, Italo Ferreira, and Jack Robinson.
From 2000-2006, women competed at Teahupo'o, with Keala Kennelly, Melanie Redman-Carr, Chelsea Georgensoen, Rochelle Ballard, and Sofía Mulánovich taking out the event, before it was removed from the tour due to "concerns about the women's safety."
Local Wildcard Vahine Fierro became the first Tahitian to win the event in 2024. - WSL / Ed Sloane
After decades without running women's events at Teahupo'o, the push to include women at all stops on tour, including waves of consequence, landed Tahiti back on the WSL Women's World Championship Tour in 2022, and has since become one of the most exciting events to watch on both the men's and women's side each year. Californian Courtney Conlogue won in 2022, followed by Floridian goofyfoot Caroline Marks in 2023 on her way to the World Title.
This year's SHISEIDO Tahiti Pro presented by Outerknown may very well have been the greatest women's competition in history, with a handful of the best tuberides ever seen in competition, including a perfect 10 point ride from Tatiana Weston-Webb, and local wildcard Vahine Fierro taking out the world's best in pumping six to ten-foot Teahupo'o.
If you'd had told the surfers three decades ago ago that not only would Teahupo'o be a staple of the men's and women's World Championship Tours, but the location for surfing's inclusion into the Olympics in 2024, they'd think you were a few cards short of a full deck-that's how far surfing has come since then.
Learn more about Teahupo'o here.
Head to the International Surfing Association (ISA) for more information on surfing in the Olympics.