Slater, reigning 10-time Association of Surfing Professionals world champion, and fellow American Bobby Martinez failed to arrive for round one of the competition that started yesterday, and had to be replaced.
Slater took to social networking in the days leading up to the event to explain his absence.
"Jbay looks pretty meager (sic). Fiji is hot and the surf is stupid big. Jbay could borrow ten feet off the top and it would still be scary here," he said on his twitter page.
Slater is staying on the heart-shaped island of Tavarua in the south Pacific, where waves were at more than 2m yesterday, and slammed criticism of his withdrawal: "You guys read too deeply into this. I saw a once in a lifetime swell and came to surf it. No apologies."
