The trek from Tofino to Tahiti is an inspiring Olympic surfing odyssey.
To appreciate how the sport has evolved from fun, sun, sand and surf to the biggest worldwide competitive stage — and its quest to remain an evolving Olympic staple — take a journey of self discovery and unbridled passion with Sanoa Dempfle-Olin.
The 19-year-old dynamo was raised in the supportive surfing culture of tiny Tofino, B.C., a Vancouver Island mecca for those who crave crazy, crashing waves in any weather, and she’s the first to represent Canada in shortboard Olympic competition later this month in Tahiti.
It’s part of a 2024 Paris platform to reach a wider athletic base and audience, and to address the surge in surfing with a commitment to the sport that commenced in its 2020 debut at Tokyo.
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Dempfle-Olin punched her Olympic ticket by claiming silver in the 2023 Pan-Am Games at Santiago, Chile, and will attack the renown Teahugp’o wicked waves in Tahiti from July 27-30. The site has been a favourite stop on the World Surf League professional calendar for more than 20 years.
And because Dempfle-Olin believes everything happens for a reason, it’s going to be appointment viewing.
“Earning this is a dream come true,” she told Postmedia. “I’m just very grateful and excited to see where it brings me with all the fun times and the learning that is going to come with it. I just feel super grateful for my family, friends and my whole team.”
Surfers crave competition that comes from wild waves and respected rivals. How the 2024 Olympic event is received and progresses will either be a buidling block for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, or being reduced to a passing curiousity.
However, it’s hard to imagine wrestling with giant waves won’t go unnoticed. Unpredictability and power of wave breaks will test Dempfle-Olin’s physical and mental ability as an Olympic rookie to deal with immense pressure.
“Anything can happen when you’re a teenager,” said Dom Domic, executive director of Surf Canada, the official national sport federation. “She has what it takes mentally to be in this position and showed a lot of promise early on. In the last 24 months, her improvement has skyrocketed and we’re hopeful she’ll be the one taking it to the next level.
“The mindset you want to be in is to have family there to normalize the situation and not have the gravity of competing in the Olympics. She’s developed into being very cerebral and very situational aware. (Tahiti) is going to be beautiful and breath-taking.”
At the Pan-Am Games to qualify for the Olympics, and with everything riding on the next qualification heat, she never flinched when the event was delayed for days by weather. It spoke to amazing maturity at a young age because taking on best of the best has always been her quest. So, despite youth, exuberance ensures expectations in Tahiti are high.
“This is uncharted territory for everyone, but there’s potential to meet up again with the woman who beat her in Santiago,” Domic added. “It’s a field of 24 and a 1-in-8 shot at the podium with a lot of variables, but Sanoa’s forehand is world class. She can go toe-to-toe and had some of the highest scores at the last world championship.
“If her head is in the game, she’s money in the bank.”
Surfers will be seeded into eight heats of three athletes. The winner of each heat advances directly to the third round, while second and third-place riders advance to round two. Nobody is eliminated in the first round of competition.
In round two, another eight heats take place consisting of two per heat. Losers from each heat will be eliminated, while the winner advances to the third round. Round three is in the same format, with the winner of each heat advancing.
The quarterfinals are four heats of two competitors. Winners advance to the semifinals which as two heats of two. Semifinal winners advance to the gold-medal heat, while losers compete for bronze. Only one surfer rides a wave and, when a heat starts, the surfer closest to the wave peak has the right of way, and those who interfere with a competitor’s ability to surf a wave receive a penalty.
Dempfle-Olin deploys a ‘goofy-foot’ approach to attacking waves. It puts her front side at the wave, which is not a random left-hand reef break, and that plays to her strengths. It allows competitive mind games, but there’s much more to manage.
“Surfing is speed, power and flow and they’re looking at what manoeuvres you’re doing,” she explained. “If someone does a turn and a bunch of water goes flying, and they throw a bunch of spray, that’s a sign of speed and power.
“And if their board changes direction, going completely to the left and then going completely to the right, that big change of direction is critical. If a surfer’s fins are free of the water, if they go above the wave, that’s all taken into consideration.
“For a wave like Teahupo’o, judges will score barrels a lot, which is when you go inside of the wave and the wave folds over top of you. The scoring is based on how big the wave is and how long you’re in the barrel for or how deep in the barrel you are.”
All this should inspire interest because the goal of any new Olympic venture is to have a long lifeline.
The X Games, once considered a playground for stunt-consumed, care-free young snowboarders and skiers, gave the Winter Games a needed new audience. Competitions that captured speed, skill, aerial innovation, and even NASCAR-like pursuits in snowboard and ski-cross events, gained immense interest.
For surfing, innovation is often determined by conditions and competitors, and the back drop of Tahiti also is a draw. That can help keep surfing in the consciousness and what can be when the Olympics arrive in Southern California in 2028.
“It has the potential in Tahiti to be seen by a lot of new eyeballs and may translate to new fans and new importance and what it takes to get there,” Domic said. “If you use snowboarding as a model in Nagano in 1998 to where it is now, there’s a path to follow and learn. We’re not only looking at 2028 — which will be a completely different animal with the beach craze — and we’re already looking at 2032.
“The momentum is definitely there and we’re going along with riding the wave. We have a lot of junior surfers with Olympics as the target. It’s super cool and I’m stoked that the kids have something to shoot for.”
As for Dempfle-Olin, incentive was never far away.
In a family of surfers, she always was near the water and got her first surfboard at age six. She signed up for her first competition two years later and then raised a lot of eyebrows at age 11 by becoming the youngest female to win the Tofino Rip Curl Pro event.
The inspiration came from sister, Mathea, who is two years older and captured bronze in longboard at the 2019 Pan-Am Games in Lima, Peru. It was Canada’s first surfing medal in history of the Pan-Am Games, but longboard is not in the current Olympic program.
In a Canadian Olympic Committee profile, it became obvious her younger sibling had big plans.
“Me and Mathea were very competitive growing up, from surfing to silly things, like making breakfast in the morning, or cleaning our rooms,” said Sonoa. “Everything was always a competition, but it was always a healthy competition.
“That’s why we were both able to get to the level that we are now. We’re always there to support each other, and push each other when we need to.”
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The sisters were also home-schooled by their mom, who also took up surfing, so they became accustomed to being outdoors and moving. It made for a natural transition to boating hiking and, of course, surfing.
“I’m close to the beach so it’s kind of my backyard,” said Dempfle-Olin. “Once I was nine or 10, surfing was something I really loved and did daily. I didn’t really care if it was cold or not, I just wanted to get in the water more than anything.”
That led to a growing an impressive resume.
Two months before the 2023 Pan-Am Games, she won her first World Surf League Qualifying Series event, the WRV Outer Banks Pro in North Carolina. And in January of 2024, she claimed her first WSL Pro Junior win at the SLO CAL Open at Pismo Beach, Calif.
None of this surprises Jeff Hasse, owner and operator of the Tofino Surfing School since 2006, who has ridden waves for 43 years.
“We’ve surfed together and I’ve been here for 20 years and it’s amazing to watch the growth of her surfing ability,” said Hasse. “There’s the physical development and the passion and it’s amazing to be in the water with her. There’s natural talent, but to put yourself on that (world) level, is because she wants to be No.1 and is in the mindset to be that good. All those attributes make her a standout.”
If it takes a village to raise a child, then Dempfle-Olin is in the perfect location because she’s a product of her environment. The locals are supportive and friends are forever.
“The kids who grow up here are lucky,” stressed Hasse. “Tofino is a hard place to live in because it’s a seasonal town and expensive to live here. We have pro surfers like Pete Devries (eight-time national champion, six-time winner one WSL circuit) to mentor off of.
“Canada is not thought to be a breeding ground for surfing — and I’m into the leisure side of it — but from an Olympic perspective, and from the core of athletes here, it would make it so sweet to hold up a gold medal.”