Not long ago, Tim Elter said that he had not yet had a chance in his young but successful career to be part of the German Open team, but that he was confident that this would happen one day.

And not only did it happen, but in his debut he managed to get his country into the Olympic Games once again.

The German who lives in the Canary Islands, where he catches a good dose of heavy waves, who not long ago, after surfing the island without a life jacket, raised money to buy one, saw how his life changed radically in 10 days on the enchanted island of Puerto Rico.

He is now part of the select group of one of the most powerful sporting nations on the planet: Germany. And as a developed country that supports its athletes, being part of that program changes your life. In other words: As a surfer, what happened to him is crazy, and as a professional, too.

Tim will be going to Teahupoo twice before the Games, two weeks in April and a month in June. He is a big young man who, coming from the Canary Islands, knows what he is doing when the sea is rough.

He should not be ruled out for a medal.

Below is a brief discussion about the video he is releasing today and the historic rating that was given and that he is still processing.

Releasing a video has probably never felt better with the big news that you've qualified for Paris 2024, right?
Yes, of course! Releasing a video always feels good. Although the images are from 2022 and 2023, I had never posted them before, I am very happy to share them now as it is a mix of clips from France, Spain and Portugal, where I was with my German colleague Sebastian Bechtel and had a great time.

Also, it has some good waves, how are you supposed to surf at Teahupoo, can you see yourself in heavy waves in this video?
Yes, in the video you can see some heavy and quite barrelled waves. Especially in France where I concentrated on surfing good sized waves. Some days there were almost only people in the water with jet skis and I did some good barrelling in such difficult conditions as France where it moves so much.

These waves are not as powerful as Teahupoo, but I think that if you spend a day on left tubes in France, it can be similar and undoubtedly a good training session for a wave as heavy as Teahupoo.

How did you celebrate qualifying for the Olympics once you got home?
I had a great time partying with my best friends and I met a lot of people from the island who congratulated me and it was all very special for me. I felt a lot of support and I am very grateful to all those who supported me and believed in me since I was a child. It was really exciting.

Has your daily life changed now?
The two weeks after qualifying were a bit different. I spent a lot of time in interviews, especially with German media, magazines, TV channels and podcasts, and also in many calls with new sponsors who may support me in the near future.

Now that the hype has passed, my day-to-day life is the same as always: I wake up calmly at home, do my routine, do my yoga, go surfing, go to the gym, everything remains the same and I see no reason why I should change my routine.

At the end of the day, I have achieved a great feat on a sporting level, but on a personal level I am still the same person.

"At the end of the day I have achieved a great feat on a sporting level but on a personal level I am still the same person"

The German Olympic Committee treats its Olympic athletes very well. Are you already in contact with them? What's next?
The German Olympic Committee is indeed treating us very well, giving us quite good financial support and a very solid infrastructure of coaches like Martin and Didier.

At the moment I don't have much planned apart from the dress code day, which is a day when I go to Germany with all the Olympic athletes to meet them and they give us clothes from the German Olympic team to go to the Olympics.

And on a financial level, of course, I will go to Tahiti to train soon and all of that will be paid for by the state and I will have the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks there to understand the wave together with my coaches Martin and Didier and a physiotherapist.

You competed very intelligently in that heat when you got the news. You knew you needed to improve a sum of 7,5, how did you know that if you were going into the water?
I had been calculating to know what scenarios could happen after that heat and when I heard that the previous heat was over and Sebastian Williams had gotten 7,5, I knew that my first goal was to get that or more, which I achieved in the first 10 minutes and after that my goal was obviously to fight to get through the heat, in the end it wasn't enough but I think I put up a good fight and I tried everything, except that heat was difficult because they are very high level and experienced surfers and in that heat they surfed better than me.

How did it happen that you told Ramzi and Rio that they had all qualified?
I was so happy and excited, and I knew they were nervous, that in the heat, and I was losing, I told them that they had already qualified, I congratulated them and Ramzi actually told him: "Look, we have all qualified for the Olympics, if you want to block me now that I am last, do it, I have no problem but my work and my duty in this championship is done and I am happy that I have qualified and you too."

How is your year going now that you know you have the Olympic Games in Tahiti?
In April I'm going to Germany and together with the team we're going to do tests to see how we're doing physically and mentally. From there I'm going to France for two days to get a new quiver and from there I'm going to Tahiti to train with my colleague Camila Kemp. From there I'll come back and I'll spend the time training physically, especially in Germany and France. From there, in June I'll go back to Tahiti for a month to train to see the wave, get used to it and get to know the place, above all, to gain confidence. And then at the end of July the Olympics arrive and that's when it's time to give it my all.

I feel very confident, very sure of myself and I will fight for a medal for Germany, without a doubt.