"Intentional, unsportsmanlike and of a serious nature..."
Rules are funny things. Live by them, die by them, as they say. For certain you either watched, or heard of, Gabriel Medina’s dying seconds burn of Caio Ibelli during his Round of 16 heat at Pipeline. Medina, and/or his step-father Charlie deduced that Ibelli would not have enough to win even if Gabe was served a priority interference.
And so Medina burned.
Savagely beautiful to watch.
In the post heat interview, Medina shrugged the whole thing off as “…that’s a rule in the book. I used it to my advantage.”
But…
…Did Medina consider Rule 171.11 and let us now read together from the World Surf League’s performance manual.
171.11 Serious Unsportsmanlike Interference
If the Discipline Director and Commissioner’s Office determine that an interference during an Event was intentional, unsportsmanlike and of a serious nature, notwithstanding any penalty available under Article 188 (which may include suspension from Events or an entire Tour), a Surfer will lose the benefit of counting their best Event result when calculating their Ranking on the relevant Tour (e.g. if this Article is violated at a QS Event, their QS Ranking will be effected). Notwithstanding any resulting discipline being imposed by the Discipline Director, the heat in question can be re-surfed if determined by the Head Judge that the result was affected by the Surfer’s conduct referred to within this Article.
Medina admitted himself that he intentionally interfered and I don’t see how the Discipline Director could see it any other way.
Do you?
Calls in etc. and, as always, more as the story develops.
(Thanks to @drewcantreid for the head’s up…)
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How is it different in terms of strategy or sportsmanship, or whatever it is that bothers you so? Convince me.
eyeroll
how is it diff than priority blocking?
Crying over spilled milk. The real issue is Medina schooled JJF in his backyard !
I reckon it’s a double standard, Gabe gets preferential treatment probably because of his insta following or something. He probably should have been in breach of the rule Chas referenced here based upon the wording, he whinged about feeling unsafe at Margs last year & they canned the event.
Let’s be honest though it isn’t the first time the WSL have displayed varying standards, Sunny used to belt people in his heats & escape penalty, Caio should’ve got the injury wildcard from last year but Kelly got it.
Rant over.
It’s a smart application of the rules. Don’t like competition – don’t be or watch professional competitions.
you’ve never surfed comps, have you?
or watched one, apparently
Next time a Val drops in on you and goes straight think of that brilliant tactician Dirty Gabe. How about Gabe’s block on JJF where Gabe didn’t lose priority, paddling straight in front of John but clearly not for the wave. This should embolden Vals everywhere, clarifying their purpose. Thanks to the WSL’s take on those situations, when Vals do the same, they aren’t doing anything wrong, they’re amazing tacticians just like Gabe.
I suppose there have been a few guys over the years who you might not have wanted to pull that stunt on.
Huge difference between the times Kelly and others dropped in WITH priority. In those situations the competitor with priority is not interfering, they are exerting their priority. Hence no interference is called. Medina is dropping in without priority intentionally drawing an interference. That is where the violation of 171.11 occurs. The rule should still be applied to this situation. Medina finished the season in 2nd place but should be dropped down a few with the highest result negated.
That said, assumption would be the WSL does nothing out of fear of the Brazilian fallout. If you are going to apply 1 rule you need to apply them all.
wrong. He dropped in without priority and lost a wave from his score line. That’s the punishment. There we nothing extraordinary or unsportsmanlike about what he did.
Wrong doesn’t exactly apply here. Sure dropping in is dropping in but INTENTIONALLY dropping in WITHOUT priority seems to be exactly what 171.11 is intended to deal with.
And why the hell is everything on the comments suddenly in Spanish? Or is that Port-a-gee?
what really matters is that MEdina humiliated JJF in his own backyard and Italo did the same with Slater.
Why did that rule ever appear when Slater burn Parko at Kirra while smiling?
classic move by Gabe. congrats. !!!! so good, even ks never used this one!!
Never forget 7-11
Yes I’m on the surf website for wannabes.
Wannabe writers.
Wannabe pro surfers.
Wannabe decent humans.
And watch the spelling. It’s proper spelling and grammar that distinguish us from the Mongol races.
Do the Mongols not spell proper?
Properly.
And Mongol is a play on words.
“Mongrel races” is too… Hitlery. Hitleresque. Hitlerish.
The best jokes are those that you have to explain
Sure, in retrospect, but why would you let Ibelli go on it to chance it?
and these has beens are the best you can throw at us
easy squeazy
Us – lol
JJF got injured and missed 5 events son. His lead was so big before the injury that he still finished 7th despite all the missed events. He would have had the title sewn up before he even had the opportunity to “get smoked” in his own backyard. lol.
Nah. The do-nothing judges are on a anti Gabe WITCH HuNT. Read the heats-on-demand TRAnSCriPt. Perfect drop-in. PERFECT!
agree. perfect. karma.
I dunno, what’s the big deal? He got penalised by losing his highest scoring wave. He would have looked like an absolute fuckwit if Caio had gone and gotten a better wave on his next one and won it.
Where it would in interesting is if Medina does that again and someone flicks their board at him or runs him over.
There’s been way bigger asshole moves that that one. Like when he dropped in on Slater at backdoor (that was fucking dangerous and way more of a cunt act). But you can add the Damian Hardman white water interference against Elkerton or even the Stubbies paddle around the point for priority thing.
The one that never gets mentioned is Derek Ho getting his mates to screw over Elkerton. That was a cunt act of epic proportions.
Discipline director? Could it be our friend Renato Hickel?