"The maneuver was deemed as gamesmanship and did not pose a safety risk to either competitor.”
Much buzz yesterday at the Banzai Pipeline when world title contender Gabriel Medina dropped in on Caio Ibelli’s possible heat-winning wave during their round four contest.
Medina, and step-daddy Charlie, correctly calculated that Ibelli would not have enough points to win even if Gabe was served a priority interference.
In the dying seconds of @gabriel1medina and @caioibelli’s Round of 16 heat, Medina dropped in on Ibelli to keep him from having any chance at getting the score he needed. With the interference, Medina will advance into the Quarterfinals#BillabongPipeMasters #VTCS @billabong1973 pic.twitter.com/Zp8pvz0Z38
— World Surf League (@wsl) December 19, 2019
As Longtom wrote in yesterday’s contest analysis,
Gabe has split the surfing universe again.
In case you missed, final thirty seconds of his heat against Caio, Gabe has one score and change. Caio has not a single make. Charlie does the math and starts screaming on the beach: “Burn him! Burn him!”
Very medieval, which I love.
I don’t speak Portuguese, so when Gabe takes off on Caio on the final wave its utterly inconceivable, just a total WTF moment. A completely intentional priority interference, this time to win.
Perfect symmetry now attained with the Portugal debacle.
The villain, the heel, the bad guy excites me, gets me through long hours of pro surfing tedium. From that POV, Medina’s drop-in is the best thing that happens all day.
It directly contravenes Rule 171.11, or so it appears, which includes as possible sanction being suspended from the entire Tour!
Nothing from the WSL, though.
Medina pushes through.
Did it or didn’t it contravene Rule 171.11?
Would Gabriel lose his Olympic spot for Brazil over the matter?
Questions it seemed no one was in a hurry to answer.
Until a few minutes ago.
After a little pushing, the WSL’s Pat O’Connell released the following statement.
“The Tours/Competition Office and WSL Disciplinary Director reviewed the situation regarding WSL Rule 171.11 in relation to Gabriel Medina’s Round 4 heat during competition yesterday, and determined that while Medina’s interference was “intentional” (as he stated on the broadcast), it was not deemed “unsportsmanlike” or “of a serious nature” by the reviewing committee. The maneuver was deemed as gamesmanship and did not pose a safety risk to either competitor.”
I agree with Patty.
It was a hilarious and exciting moment that left me purring like a cat.
Case closed, yes?
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I just hope the tools in the front office at the WSL understand how valuable Beach Grit is to their survival. Without Chas, Derek, LongTom, Jen, Surfads, etc, etc, etc providing the realities and absurdities, I’d probably skip watching the tour altogether until it got to the quarterfinals each event…
That is not what the rule says, Pat O’! It was “intentional”, and “of a serious nature”. It doesn’t have to be “dangerous”. And those two affirmatives, on themselves, constitute the “unsportsmanlike” penalty attribution, it is a clear rule and not subject to interpretation. It’s a fucking disgrace! A fucking disgrace!!!
Case not closed. May be on a rational level, but surely not on a aesthetic one.
Every single time I’ve tried to comment in a news Corp article I’ve been rejected.
Carissa and her kane should franchise Banan’ from one end of Japan to another and retire as gazillionaires.
That Waikiki Banan’ stand in the alley between Royal Hawaiian and Moana Surfrider is the best-located business I’ve ever seen.
The Japanese love Hawaii and anything related to Hawaii – despite what they did to it.
Hey BM where ya been?
Just went to the Buzzy Book signing in Malibu. He done good but I told him it would be a lot of work. It was.
Long live the caped crusader !
yes, case closed, brilliant maneuver by gabe!!!!! and correct decision by wsl -one even ks called wrong : )
An endless feedback loop getting louder and louder!
It’s already there!
What Medina did was funny and injected some entertainment into what until that point had been a dull as ditch-water finals day. Let’s not forget that despite his I’m so wholesome and I’m the poor victim act Caio beat Medina in Portugal by gaming the priority judge. And whatever your thoughts on the Pipeline incident it seemed to gee Medina up for his match-up with JJ. He understandably looked a bit spent after that whereas Italo peaked at the right time. Italo’s a great champion but Medina would also have been a great champion.
Thomas Jefferson said in 1816, “Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times.”
The rules will always lag behind ?
Oops…..maybe unsporting Is a more gender neutral word…Jen See? Whaadya reckon?
I want to row back on any perceived passionate arguments about whether Medina was in the wrong or not to play fast with the rules,
I’ve realised after another day of thinking about surfing and not actually doing it (but other stuff, like finishing touches on the kids’ tree house) that getting vaguely red-faced over various bitchy minutiae within the bread&circus of the over-paid CT handbag-swinging is beneath me. Fuck ALL those over-paid cunts and all the horses they all rode in on.
Thankxx
Kissies!!!
now you are going have Tayler Swift all upset.
Why’s that?
Have I just made a contemporary reference of which I am not aware?
Oh dear.
Did she have priority?
Do I just burn her?
https://www.bbc.com/news/wo….
I know you were talking about fucking the horses not racing them so she might give you a pass.
Horse-fucking is so 2019.
Bo-ring.
so in theory a guy can paddle out and get a quick 2 pointer, then a .2 and just sit on and burn the other guy for 30 minutes. seems a dramatic shift from “the best surfers in the best waves”.
You can only burn him once ? If you burn him twice you lose ….could work at a place like Trestles or an inconsistent Bells or Chopes ? Drop an Excellent score and sit on the other bugger stop him getting a wave with priority , then even if forced to give up priority to block , finish him off at the end of the heat by interfering and stopping him from getting a second score over a point ?
You can only make this move in the last minute or so of a heat, when you have a lead based on your single high wave score. If you do it earlier, the other guy instantly gets priority and you’re doomed. Do it twice and you won’t have a score at all.
gabs didn’t have priority. the priority aspect becomes completely redundent. so you just burn the guy so he gets closed out, pull off, sneak another .2 ride while the other guy is caught inside then repeat. according to the wsl it wouldn’t constitute unsportsmanlike behaviour. it would be viewed as gamesmanship. I am in no way promoting it, it just seems to me that this kind of tactic does nothing to promote the level of performance surfing (a level which Medina is pushing along with a select few, this makes the tactic seem even more bizarre to me).
So Gabby hangs with Neymar, and now he dives (drops in) like a professional footballer. Its cheating in my book, and I think the rules need to be altered to get rid of this sort of behaviour. Imagine if the fucker had won the world title on a technicality. He is making a habit of it and it needs to stop!
On another note – that storm in a teacup about the Brazilians being so tight as a crew…. seems there’s trouble in paradise.
It happened during a heat . They both knew they were competing . Rules is Rules …… It is not like one of them waited till the after party and took home the opponent’s partner just to spite them ? …….This has happened !
All is fair in love and war and surf competitions!
Correct ! The sheep obey the rules while the Goats challenge them ?
And if one’s partner is so fickle ,that he or she , would cheat on one , with one’s enemy , then one , though possibly red with rage , has probably saved him or herself from a life of misery with the wrong partner ….?
Well at least there will be no asterisk for the 2020 world women’s champ , as there was none for the last two titles when Tyler Wright , was out with a serious debilitating illness , after completely dominating 2016 and then winning 2017 competing in the last two events with a serious knee injury .
Gabe burning Caio only sparked entertaining reactions because of it’s relation to the interference in Portugal. Who would have been in the wrong if Caio would have run Gabe over (like Gabe would have done if the tables were turned)?
Once they start quoting the same article they’re writing in I’ll have lost all bearings in life
Sweep the leg.
Sensei?
You got a problem with that?!!
No, Sensei.
She probably gonna have a baby.
Twins