A shot like this would never go viral in the way Gabriel Medina’s Round 3 kickout did. But it’s surely a more accurate representation of Teahupo’o. Photo: Pablo Jimenez//ISA
Tim McKenna isn’t the only person in the surf world whose perspective on Gabriel Medina’s viral Olympic photo opposes the mainstream’s infatuation with it. As many have pointed out over the past week, there’s something off about the most viewed and talked-about image of surfing not even showcasing the wave itself. McKenna, who decided to set roots in Tahiti after photographing the wave for more than a decade and has lived there since, took the opportunity to elaborate on that take in a recent interview.
“It’s great publicity for the Olympics and for Jerome but there are better photos out there,” he said, acknowledging that Jerome Brouillet’s image is definitely captivating thanks to a few unique characteristics.
“It’s classic. It’s typical mainstream media that love kickouts [exiting a wave], the worst maneuver in surfing, the things we never show,” he adds. “So yeah, unfortunately, the most famous photo of the Olympics is going to be a photo where you don’t even see the Teahupo’o wave and for me, it’s all about the wave. It’s the show, the star is the wave. In his photo, you don’t really see it.
Brouillet himself expressed a similar observation last week while talking to The Inertia’s Evan Quarnstrom in Tahiti just 48 hours after the moment started to go viral.
“The iconic Muhammad Ali photo (where he’s standing over Sonny Liston) is not a boxing photo,” he said. “There is one man KO’d and the other man looking at him. Medina’s celebration is probably in the same category if I were to make a comparison.”
McKenna expressed a bit of disappointment in the way things played out, sharing that the hunt for a viral photo during this Olympic contest was intended and while it was accomplished, it didn’t exactly do anything to shine light on the sport and the wave itself.
“I’m a little bit disappointed because it’s a tiny part of surfing. Look at Gabriel Medina’s events in the last few years, I have heaps of photos like that. Everyone does,” he says. “It’s a nice photo but it doesn’t represent, to me, the beauty of Teahupo’o and the beauty of this event, so hopefully there will be other images that represent this event.”
The full conversation can be watched in the clip below. It covers a range of topics about life around Teahupo’o and what makes the wave special, but its turn towards Medina’s viral image is noteworthy.
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