Our amigos over at Volcom have unveiled their version of the events that went down on June 8, in the middle of the South Pacific, off a little heart-shaped chunk of sand called Tavarua. Much like last year’s Billabong Pro in Tahiti, a monster swell lined up right in the middle of the contest waiting period, causing the event to take a backseat as the world’s best big-wave hellmen took over and the cameras rolled. Although, unlike the Tahiti swell, much controversy ensued after Volcom pulled the plug on the event midday, as the massive waves were still technically paddle-able.

Opinions from both fans and pros flooded the twitter-insta-blog-osphere, and valid points were made regarding safety, practicality, size of testicles, and what being a pro surfer entails.

Regardless of the call that was made, we got to witness a truly unbelievable display of paddle-surfing in some of the most perfect big waves ever captured on a memory card. Considering that not many of the WT surfers besides Slater had a board over 6’8″, had they run the contest we’d be crying that nobody was catching anything while the world’s best chargers sat on their hands in the channel.