This guy’s pretty tough to replace. Photo: Thiago Diz//World Surf League
Gabriel Medina’s announcement that he will miss significant time from professional surfing has opened a door of opportunity. His unfortunate pectoral tear will create a vacant Championship Tour spot for one of two surfers: the Mexican Alan Cleland or the Hawaiian Ian Gentil.
According to reports, who gets the spot depends on Medina’s next move. If Medina decides to completely pull out of the 2025 tour, his slot would go to the top surfer to miss the cut in 2024, which would be Brazil’s Samuel Pupo. Here’s the catch: Pupo already qualified for the 2025 tour via his finish atop the 2024 Challenger Series (CS). Pupo would take the newly vacant CT slot and get a better seeding than if he just qualified from the CS.
So Pupo’s CS slot would then become vacant and open up a qualification spot for the next CS surfer in line, which is Cleland.
However, in the case that Gabriel Medina does not withdraw from the 2025 tour in hopes of a recovery before the end of the season in August, then the spot would not go to Cleland. It would go to the next eligible replacement surfer on the 2024 CT, which would be Gentil because Pupo, the surfer ranked ahead of him, is already on the tour.
In short, Cleland qualifies if Medina decides to skip the entire 2025 season. Gentil qualifies if Medina just pulls out of individual events until he’s healthy enough to return.
It’s a bit deflating as a surf fan to know that we will be robbed of a year of prime Gabriel Medina. It feels like he’s overdue for a big season. Despite being undeniably one of the top talents on the CT, he’s struggled (by his standards) for the past two years. He missed the WSL Final 5 on both occasions and was not in the running for a title.
That’s one less elite competitor for surfers like Griffin Colapinto and Jack Robinson who are both in search of their first title. And it’s one less nemesis for returning world champs like John John Florence (even though retirement rumors never die), Italo Ferreira, and Filipe Toledo.
But perhaps an even bigger impact could be at the very bottom of the seeding. Cleland’s well-balanced repertoire, which combines charging heavy waves with excelling in performance-oriented surf, is perfectly suited for the CT. If he were to get the slot, he could punch far above his weight as a member of the rookie class.
We should have an answer soon on what Medina decides. Then the rest of the dominoes will fall into place.
