Sanoa Dempfle-Olin will be the first Canadian woman to compete in surfing at the Olympic Games, which begin Saturday.

The sport made its Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, but Canada did not enter any athletes.

Dempfle-Olin is the only Canadian surfer to compete at Tahiti's Teahupo'o (pronounced CHOH-poo), known as the “Wall of Skulls.”

Tahiti is an island in French Polynesia located in the South Pacific, approximately 15,000 kilometers from the host city of Paris.

Dempfle-Olin, an 18-year-old from Tofino, B.C., provisionally qualified for the Paris Games by winning a silver medal at the 2023 Pan Am Games, and officially sealed her ticket by finishing 13th at February's World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico.

Her older sister, Mathea, is also an accomplished surfer and won bronze at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru in 2019.

Sanoe Dempfle-Olin answered a few questions from The Canadian Press before writing the national surfing story. The interview has been condensed and edited for space.

Will you feel like you're part of the Olympic Games by competing in a location far from the host city?

“Of course, yes. There's a different energy around it. It's something very distant. I'm sure there will be differences. I hope to go to Paris after the surfing part of the event and see the Olympic city.

What makes Teahupo'o so great and why is it called the Wall of Skulls?

“Teahupo’o is a very popular wave in surfing. It can be a perfect, dreamy wave, but it can also have a lot of swell and get really big and thick. It breaks on a very shallow reef. It’s a very scary wave. It takes a lot of effort to surf.

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Are you afraid of sharks and have you ever seen one?

“I’m not afraid of sharks. Sometimes I definitely have them in my mind when I see something splashing, but it all depends on the environment you’re in. If you’re in a beautiful lagoon and you’re swimming with manta rays and smaller sharks and you feel calm, it’s a very enjoyable experience because they’re very special and beautiful creatures. But they’re also very powerful and they’re hunters. “If you saw one swimming in front of you, you’d definitely be nervous.”

What does it mean to be the first Canadian to qualify for the Olympic Games in surfing?

“Means a lot to me. I felt a lot of support from the Canadian surfing community. It makes me feel like there is a bigger future for Canadian surfing. I hope it provides more opportunities for Canadian surfers and all the kids growing up in Tofino or any other part of Canada where there is ocean and waves, to make surfing a sport option as they grow up.

Who inspires you? Do you have a hero?

“My sister is definitely one of my heroes. She paved the way for Canadian surfing and in a way showed me the way. And also a lot of local surfers like Pete Devries, Raph and Sepp Bruhwiler, and all the people I grew up surfing with and watching surf, they’re all my heroes.