You can't get cooler, you can't get a sexier rebellion than the one Medina is fomenting right now.
In his recent (awesome) podcast with Dave Prodan veteran surf journalist Nick Carroll extolled, without irony I believe, pro surfers as interesting people.
I have a different view.
Pro surfers aren’t uniquely boring, they do, by degrees, become slightly more interesting once they stop competing and start breweries, sell soft-tops, become real estate magnates, ride twin-fins, wander around Mexican pointbreaks etc etc.
Blandness while competing is encouraged, selected for, the status quo.
Early career mid-rangers tend to live in tract housing in new suburbs and think the business of being a pro surfer is mostly about the x’s and o’s of doing cutties, reos, airs and toob-rides good enough to win heats.
Incorrect.
The business of being a pro surfer is entertaining the fans enough to justify the huge time expenditure required to put sufficient eyeballs on the sport for long enough to make it a going concern in the attention economy.
In short, an entertainment/sporting product that you would care enough about to watch.
Which makes Gabriel Medina a uniquely valuable commodity.
Chas was right to point out the awesomeness of Kolohe’s rebellion against the new format of the WSL, but we’re missing a huge trick if we don’t pay homage to the real instigator of this rebellion on the eve of the Tour kicking off.
Which is, of course, the best true heel on Tour since Andy Irons, double World Champ Gabriel Medina.
Western surf media picked up on an interview with Brazilian site Waves informing us Gabe and Charlie would no longer be working as a team.
Which is a mighty bummer.
But the real story, which has managed to slip under the radar is that Medina called BS on the new location and format that the Wozzle has selected to decide the World Champ.
Whatever you think about Medina, and I know there are squadrons of haters out there, he is no company man. He creates drama with both performance and tactics, maybe the only World Champ in the modern era outside Kelly Slater who even understands the possibility of tactics.
At every turn, the sports governing body has sought to squash down the tactics, largely innovated by Medina, which further dilute the gladiatorial vision of Drouyn. Tactics, hassling, psychological warfare, physical intimidation are part of the behavioural mix at every good surf spot.
By trying to strip them out it bleeds white an already sterile situation.
By taking out the “bad guy” it causes us to care less.
Gabe called Lowers, the location for the Finals, a “weak wave” that favours regular-foots. In a stunning rebuke he said, “We deserve to fight for the Title in a wave of truth”.
Which is not just true, but beautiful.
The Title determined in a wave of truth.
Sigh.
He drew a parallel with Formula One racing and asked what would happen if Lewis Hamilton won eight races and was then forced to compete for the title on a “lottery track”.
Which of course applies even moreso to pro surfing.
I’m wary of speculating after getting (justifiably) whacked in the comments on the EPS article, but how will we deal with a scenario where Gabe is a wave short of victory at Pipe, wins Narrabeen, wins Teahupoo, wins J-Bay, wins the Tub and then gets shafted at three-foot onshore Trestles by Toledo or Caio Ibelli?
Am I making too much of this?
The Dual World Champ, first from Brazil, impugning the credibility of the process of deciding a World Champ?
Imagine Tom Brady saying the Superbowl was bollocks or Lebron James saying the play-offs were junk. It’d be huge news.
The response from the WSL? Silencia. Not a dicky bird.
I really had to laugh.
Prodan in his poddy lamented at length the lack of rebellion in pro surfing, claiming all that was left was a “sad echo of what was cool”.
Meanwhile, the black-eyed champ stands atop the citadel pouring hot oil all over the organisation and they turn away and pretend it ain’t happening.
You can’t get cooler, you can’t get a sexier rebellion than the one Medina is fomenting right now.
It’s never been done.
Never been seen before.
Even Slater at the height of his discontent in 2009 when the Rebel Tour was muted and then CEO Brodie Carr handed the champ a special, one-time only contract to keep him in the sport never openly challenged the power brokers like Medina.
Interesting?
This guy is molten lava.
I love that he’s been so underground in the last year too. Every man and his dog is flogging the internet with surf vlogs and Medina stays silent, comes out and almost wins the Pipe Masters.
The three guys most likely to suffer from a Trestles Final? JJF, Medina and Slater.
What a great little nucleus that would be if this rebellion really took hold and something amazing happened come September.
Am I reading too much into Medina’s comments?
Or not enough?
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Has WSL said the reason for Trestles is Orange County is the last place on earth that will close for Covid and they’d like to actually run the event? Cause that’s the reason, right? And it’s convenient and cheaper for the surf companies that are left? Be thankful it’s not wrapped into a Huntington US Open.
Longtom is leagues better than Stab premium. I have never seen Stab premium. #mytruth
Put gabby on that WSL show where they’re supposed to yell at each other. But get him a damn translator so he can speak wave of truth to power.
I’m trying hard to not be too cynical, but that gets tested every day.
A “wave of truth” would be sharky as fuck I think, I wonder if gabby considered this.
No disrespect guys but you need an editor.
It’s mooted (proposed), not muted (made quiet).
If you need someone to proofread before upload i’ll do it for free.
I always thought the business of pro surfing was to crown a legitimate world champ, and from a competitor’s point of view that meant finishing on top of the ratings. Of course the reality is pro surfing was just a vanity project for the big three. They existed just fine before there was any pro circuit. Well somewhere along the line it turned into a weird try-hard MMA media enterprise I suppose.
Well there was that time when Coke proposed to make a rebel tour but the surf brands stymied it because they wouldn’t get branding at all the comps. That’s the story worth writing, but no-one wants to talk about it.
Pro surfers with the exception of a handful (e.g. Shaun Tompson) never got educated because they went from hot 14 year old shredder to hot junior competitor to hot pro. I feel sorry for most of them to be honest. But hey, they spend x years living the life of a rock star with slappers and drugs, and of course they can surf better than us mortals, so they win I guess. But they are mostly pretty boring because all they know what to do is surf good.
Aah fuck it, i’ve got a belly full of booze so shouldn’t be drunk posting.
Gabe Medina is a rad surfer and even though he’s a tenacious cunt I love to watch him surf, and i’m a natural foot so watching goofys makes my brain explode unless I watch it in a mirror. I don’t have anything against him. Surely he’s been around long enough to know the lay of the land. Dirk wants to sell this whole thing off so some other schmuck so that means making the best $ he can, and that means a finale in California.
Actually I reckon Gabe is a chance at trestles anyhow. I sat on the beach and saw him win if france in 2011 when he was just some kid. He can win anywhere. Probably a better chance of winning in Trestles than JJF.
He’s won a QS at trstles
He beat his old mate Glen Hall in the final, crushed him. On the lefts
I love watching in the mirror.
The real question is: how the hell did Glen Hall made it to the final?
Yeah cause jjf and a host of other top guys were in it, I think it was pretty small
It wasn’t small, it was micro!
tldr
It’s Shaun Tomson not Thompson, France gets a capital F, same with the i in I’ll and I’ve, just saying etc.
My excuse was drunk posting.
Also in France, not if France
Do you reckon he is delibrantly mentioning Lewis so he can then call him a kook for how he is Kelly’s mate, and carries his board the wrong way to initiate a fued with Kelly!! I really hope so
Longtom, you do realize that ‘you’ and ‘other surfers’ are ‘not’ the Wsl’s target audience– their target audience is ‘mainstream’ America, where the real money is.
Just a ‘reality’ check for you.
Yup, the Wsl wants it polished and cleaned up to try and sell to their ‘target audience’, which is not surfers– it’s mainstream America.
After typing the above, I think I just realized that–this may be the ‘truth’–the Wsl target audience is ‘not’ surfers–it’s mainstream America, where the money is at.
Sam you’d think by now they’d realise its not going to happen in Iowa – so you would assume Plan B is how do we polish up this piece of shit to offload.
“Onda de verdade” means real wave, not wave of truth. but cool article though.
E verdade.
How about “Aquilo não foi uma onda – foi uma ondulação”?
“that was not a wave, twas a ripple”…
Medina has been saying this for a year now. Not the first time he expressed his views in a Brazilian outlet. they probably made him lie about being ok with it for that BS stab podcast witch Mick.
When I was a young thing, back in the Jurassic period, by far it was the most subversive mag going!
Let them eat cake
(Just not Chasdz cake…)
It must be a joke right?
“You can’t get cooler, you can’t get a sexier rebellion than the one Medina is fomenting right now.“
A rebellion is an act of resistance.
Bobby M. resisted
Honk Kong last year was a cool rebellion this is just a a rich dude whinging that things are not going his way.
Jack, how are Matt and Leroy doing?
Getting old but still surfing
Cool, glad to hear they’re still getting in the water, surfing can help to keep you young.
Lifeguard.
Ya, I think Leroy split to the Islands and Matt kinda settled down with Peggy.
Well said, overpaid pro surfers today are about as rebellious as a bunch of cheer leaders.
Please use, it’s on me. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Can you imagine the size of the asterisk next to this year’s title?
A real asterisk. An asterisk of truth.
Well there’s a pretty big one in 2001, and another one against 1976.
In the immortal words of Chris Hadfield, “Even flying in space carries with it some sort of asterisk.”
Don’t drop in on Jordy, ya douche!
Specially because he has won Trestles twice…
WSL could have the best of both worlds – a world championship decided by the tour and a super cup with the top five from the tour competing for the “Cup” which is in effect desirable as the prize money is double or triple that of a normal event! F1 tried to spice up the championship in 2015 by awarding double points for the final race – the fans hated it, luckily it didn’t materially affect the championship that year, and they went back to the regular scoring system for the following season!
I proposed the same scenario in an IG agruement with the Stab account, ala cycling World Cup/World champ scenario or SX tour vs Monster Energy cup. The reality is, only surfers care about surfing, and trying to appeal to the non surfing masses is just a dilution of the sport at best. Not until wave pools cover the globe will there be an inland interest in competitive surfing
Gabby meant to say
A Wave of Mutilation
But truth is so in
She’s my fave
Undressing in the sun
Return to sea, bye
Forgetting everyone
Eleven high
Ride a wave
YourTruth™
Those 3 – JJF, Slater and Gabbie have ca$h to make a rebel tour happen too. Plus the clout (obviously) with the surfers to pitch it and that would equal sponsor dollars.
So no LT, not reading into it too much I say! However I might be..
Guess I’m going to sound like a broken record, but outside of surfers–there’s really no market for pro surfing, and that’s where the real money is at.