Photo: ASP | Kirsten
Gabriel Medina cemented himself among the all-time greats yesterday. A look at what he achieved confirms it. He not only won the world title, he smashed it, beating a worrying slump and 14-world-titles worth of experience to do it.
At 20 years old he is now equal with Kelly Slater as the youngest surfer in ASP men’s history to win a world title. He is also the first Brazilian to win a world title — something he did without giving up the yellow leader’s jersey once in 2014. By making the Pipe Masters final, he became the first Brazilian to do so since the late great Pepe Lopez in 1976, falling less than a half a point short of victory in a dramatic last-second exchange with six- to eight-foot Pipeline and Backdoor conditions.
The day began with Medina needing only to beat Dusty Payne in Round Three to end any hopes of a 12th Kelly Slater world title. While the Hawaiian Dusty is no slouch at Pipe, he was no match for the young Brazilian. Medina was supreme in the pumping conditions, opening with a radical drop into a thundering Pipe for an 8.83 before finishing the job with a long, slabbing backside barrel for another 8.83. So much for his suspect backside tube game (admittedly my call a little while back).
His performance signaled the beginning of a final-day rout by the Brazilians. The “Brazilian Storm” was in full effect as Alejo Muniz took to the water against Kelly Slater one heat later. The young Brazilian needed a semi-final finish to avoid relegation from the World Tour. With Kelly having already conceded the title, Muniz rubbed salt into the wound with a thick, endlessly slabbing Backdoor bomb for a 9.5 at the buzzer for the win.
With Slater out, only Mick Fanning remained. He took on Jeremy Flores in the very next heat. He required a win to keep his hopes alive. With less than minutes left, Fanning was still yet to catch a wave. As the pressure mounted, he chose a Backdoor wave that never looked good and with less than five on the clock, he looked to be defeated. His strategy was clearly to wait for the bombs, but with a minute to go, the ocean still hadn’t provided. Then it happened. A west peak loomed over Backdoor, offering a huge shoulder and an easy chip-shot take off. Fanning scooped into it with ease and let the wave do the rest for an 8.17 and a dramatic win.
The sudden death dual continued. As luck would have it, the biggest barrier standing between Medina and Brazil’s first ever world title was another Brazilian, Filipe Toledo. When he turbo-pumped his way through a thick Backdoor runner for a 9.23 with six on the clock, it looked as though Medina would be forced into sudden death round five. Instead, with his back against the wall and a nation’s hopes on his shoulders, he rose to the task, cementing his superstar credentials with a buzzer-beating Backdoor runner — exited through the doggy door — for an 8.23 and a character-building win.
Meanwhile, Fanning’s patchy form continued, this time in a wave-starved round four non-elimination heat. In a strategic cock-up that will no doubt keep the three-time world champ awake tonight, he was left requiring the paltry score of 1.69 (basically a take off and a head dip) to take the lead as time ran down. He couldn’t find it, condemning him to round five where an en fuego Muniz awaited.
When history looks back on Brazil’s first ever world title, it should not forget Alejo Muniz. He had no right to topple Fanning, a three-time world champ with experience and results at every event on tour. Yet as the heat began, it was Fanning who lacked composure, incessantly picking off poor waves as if he was still searching for the 1.69 from the heat previous. As the final set of the heat approached, Fanning, requiring a meagre 5.5, held priority and should have sealed victory. But again he snatched at it, taking the first wave of the set — a crumbly Backdoor closeout. The second, a cannoning Backdoor slabber that would have easily given him the score he needed, was left to Sebastian Zietz (in the overlapping round five heat), who stood tall through the majestic cavern.
With that lost wave, history had been made. The scenes that followed as Medina was announced World Champ would be described by ASP commissioner Kieren Perrow as unprecedented in the history of the ASP. The result had an extra sweetener for Brazilians. It spared Filipe Toledo having to surf against Medina in their upcoming quarterfinal clash with a world title on the line.
In a bizarre scheduling bungle, as Medina celebrated on shore in a tearful embrace with Muniz and conducted an interview with the ASP, his quarterfinal opponent Toledo was left in the lineup for the first 15 minutes of their clash. But in an immense showing of sportsmanship, Toledo refused to catch a wave for the opening 15 minutes, waiting instead for Medina to rejoin the heat before they squared off. The win would go to Medina for a small Pipe barrel, setting himself up for one of the most significant Pipe Masters wins in the history of surfing.
When Medina racked up the first perfect 10 of the event with a dramatic backside scoop into a flaring Backdoor tube, the dream looked complete. But as the waves pulsed, and tube after tube after gassed over the reef, Australian Julian Wilson bounced back. What a shootout it was. It’s hard to recall a better display of tube riding, Wilson eventually triumphed on the final exchange of the day, smoothly scooping into a long Backdoor spitter. Medina, who was on the one behind, fell less than a half a point short for his elevator-drop beneath a guillotining lip.
At the end of the day, it was smiles across the board — except for Muniz, the forgotten hero in this landmark day of surfing, who fell one heat short of re-qualifying for the World Tour, going down to Ace Buchan in the quarters.
