To many people in the surfing world, Gabriel Medina is a bit of an enigma. He’s a superstar in Brazil, arm-in-arm with huge celebrities like Neymar. But outside if Brazil, although he’s well-known, he’s not known very well. That is to say that everyone knows his name, but who he really is remains a mystery. We see only a carefully curated output on social media and the killer competitor that he is. We see the surfer who plays by the rules to such a degree that it almost seems that he should be breaking them. Medina is, without a doubt, one of the savviest competitive surfers who has ever lived. He seems to have a singular focus on winning. “You don’t get as good as a World Champion unless you’re obsessive,” said Kelly Slater, a man with some experience in that arena.
But now, we’ll get a glimpse into who he is, because his biopic is coming soon. “I started surfing at 7-years-old,” he wrote on Instagram. “As soon as I got on the board, I began to dream of being a world champion. Since then, I’ve spent most of my life in the water chasing the biggest goal of my life, but it wasn’t easy. Everyone knows Gabriel Medina today, but few know the things I went through to get here. I managed to make my dreams come true, and now I’m very happy to be able to share my story and life path with you!”
Directed by Henrique Daniel, the film drops on January 31 exclusively on Globoplay… but you can bet we’ll try and get our hands on it.
