Women Who Travel Podcast: Inside Tahiti’s Olympic Surf Scene

The culture here, you’re expected to go out and introduce yourself to everyone in the lineup. Swim up to them, shake their hand and be like, “Hi, I’m Megan. What’s your name?” Meet everyone. And then you start surfing.

In California, it’s like you go out, you side-eye people. It’s very nasty. People are cutting in front of each other for the waves. The town I grew up in literally had a problem with a gang of dad surfers not letting people surf their waves.

LA: Oh, my God.

MS: I know, I know. So here it’s kind of like if you respect people the way that it’s expected and the way people respect each other, great, you’re part of it. But if you come out and you don’t say hi to anyone, you probably aren’t getting any waves, which I think is fair.

LA: Now if surfing isn’t your thing and you can only watch surfers for so long, there’s much more to do in Tahiti and French Polynesia. More on that coming up after the break.

To experience Tahiti means, of course, trying the island’s food. Megan is very partial to raw fish and a popular Tahitian dish is just that. Poisson Cru cooked in coconut milk.

MS: I’ve eaten Poisson Cru or sashimi, which are on every menu, I mean for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I’m definitely in my element. And I think what’s cool here is when I ask people for restaurant recommendations before or when I’ve read articles, there’s a lot of go anywhere. Where I’m like, “Well no, but tell me the good place.”

But then I’ve realized why people say that. Because any random side of the road restaurant I go to and I get the Poisson Cru or I get anything else, it’s all equally good. I promise you, every single place side of the road I’ve pulled over, where you see that they have Tahitian food, it has been good in my experience and everyone here tells me the same. So I would say just be open to trying little spots.

LA: There are beaches on Tahiti that are ripe for scuba diving, surfing, paddleboarding, kiteboarding, snorkeling, whale watching, deep sea fishing, and sailing.

MS: I think being in such a beautiful place for such a short amount of time, I’ve made a rule for myself, which is every morning I have to jump in the ocean. So even if I have a packed day, it’s like I got to get out there and take advantage of this. Even if it’s one dunk, and then I shower and I start my busy days, which have been very busy.

I love doing a boat tour around the south side of the island. So you go and see these crazy waterfalls, you wade through lagoons. There’s all these formations in the cliffs meeting the ocean where you can see where a long time ago, ancient Polynesians used to wail. Or where women would go to give birth in this rock structure that’s right beside the ocean.