The structure had been assembled on the ground and was to be put in place in its entirety in a move that is believed to have taken place this weekend.

“The new tower is up. The wave is as perfect as ever. The coral suffered minimal damage after a channel was marked in the lagoon for easy access by construction ships,” McKenna wrote.

He added, “It will take some time to see if ciguatera has dramatically increased in certain fish living in that specific area of ​​the lagoon. In the meantime, the aluminum construction looks pretty sleek and was put together quicker than expected. Tahiti now has a state-of-the-art judging tower for the next 20 years of surf events at #endoftheroad. It will still be taken down and rebuilt every year like the last.”

“The people of Teahupoo and the entire population are ready to cheer on local surfers Vahiné Fierro and Kauli Vaast to take home gold this July at Paris 2024,” McKenna concluded.

The tower was extremely controversial for several months as hundreds of locals protested against it and more than 200.000 signatures were collected against it.

Even the International Surfing Association spoke out against it and offered alternatives for the event to be judged.

The ISA options were ruled out by the local government and the Paris 2024 organizing committee and the works went ahead.

Suddenly, Teahupoo locals stopped expressing themselves about it on social media.

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