Vahine Fierro became the first French surfer to win the women’s Tahiti Pro on the waves of Teahupo’o on Wednesday, two months before the Olympics surfing events are held at the French Pacific island. Fierro, 24, was born on the neighbouring island of Huahine and with this success marked herself down as one of the favourites for Olympic gold. “It’s crazy. There was so much power in the waves, I’m speechless,” she said after using her local knowledge to help beat Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy in the final. Nearly 16,000 kilometres (9,950 miles) from the French capital, the French Pacific island of Tahiti was chosen to host the surfing events. This week’s event is officially a World Surf League event but it is really a chance to whet the appetite at one of the world’s top surfing venues. Teahupo’o is a small village in the southwest of the Tahiti peninsula, with a backdrop of misty mountains, where every year a few hundred residents welcome the elite surfers and their teams in their wooden bungalows. Surfers from all over the world were won over by Teahupo’o in the early 2000s after the publication of a photo of American surfer Laird Hamilton spinning on his board inside what appeared to be a watery translucent tube.