Of five events so far this season, Medina has been in the final of four ‘em, winning two.
The two-time world surfing champion Gabriel Medina has easily maintained his jackboot on the neck of the WSL tour rankings beating Australian Morgan Cibilic at the Rip Curl Rottnest Search in three-to-five-foot waves.
Medina, who is twenty-seven, mowed through Kael Walsh, Owen Wright, Conner Coffin and Italo Ferreira, as well as the aforementioned tour debutante Cibilic, to win the event.
Of five events so far this season, Medina has been in the final of four ‘em, winning two.
For Medina, it is a welcome start to a season that has been beset by controversy after wild speculation he’d formed a loving union with soccer superstar Neymar Jnr (“It’s not normal to see two men like this”), the initial split with his parents after his surprise marriage to actress and model Yasmin Brunet and an apparent blood feud between mammy Simone and wife Yasmin and sister-in-law Bruna.
In the women, Sally Fitzgibbons, dressed as elf, proved enthusiasm is everything, beating Reunion Island surfer Johanne Defay.
Finals Day analysis, by Steve “Longtom” Shearer to follow shortly.
These write-ups are great. Much criticism of Australian surfing’s many shortcomings. What about getting stuck into the Aus boardriders system for fostering a form of three-to-the beach puritanism and a hopelessly risk adverse form of competitive surfing?
You better kill yourself now and just get it over with.
The ignominy.
You remember what Dora said: “Life is a waste of time.”
I hope for your sake that you have finished with your writing career Ben because one of these days someone’s going to forward these lovely messages to your publisher and you’ll find yourself cancelled.
Can’t say we didn’t warn you.
Publisher?
Publishers are like cops: Never around when you need them, and when they do show up, all they want to do is handcuff you.
One publisher I worked with translated my history of skateboarding book into French and never bothered to tell me they’d dunnit.
I found out when I was in Hawaii and was invited to fly to Monaco and stay at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel because Skateboard: De La Rue a La Rampe had been nominated for Sports Book of the Year.
Too far from Hawaii, so I sent Lucia.
We self-published Clark Little’s book and he sold 10,000 copies at $100 to $250 each: Me, Clark and Joni Casimingle.
Which is – by far – the most success ful surf adjacent book, ever.
Think Chas has sold 10,000 copies of any of his books?
Doubt it, and certainly not for $100.
Publishers are a waste of time.
You’re a waste of time
.
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Dude if you have to self publish it’s no wonder you live in your car.
Right now I’m in a house on Malibu Road that rents for $25,000 a month.
I wish I was living in a van.
And self-publishing is the way to go.
Clark Little self-published his book – at my instruction – and made choke kala.
Any book makes money ever it’s a big deal and his made a lot.
How’s your art of sup book doing?
Its okay. I get regular royalty checks.
Sometimes books are fun to do but they don’t make much money.
💎 Top Spin *not that wannabe tennis one
Ain’t no sunshine with no John.
So I watched about 7 minutes of this connest…said I wasn’t…going to…anymore. I did. Hating myself a little. Fuck.
I liked the men’s final
I used to hate Gabby. With a passion. Now with Slater out, and JJF out, he’s the only thing making this tennis tour relevant. Long live the new peacock king.
like he’s surfing with the local boardriders club. everyone else is fucking ordinary
She had a shocker at Newcastle but had posted good numbers at Narrabeen and Margarets and finally excellent scores at Rottnest and never looked back ….
Brutal.
But if there’s an east swell and it’s 6ft at your local and 30km up the coast someone is saying it’s 8ft, it’s worth a query.
They usually get a sentence or two.
Judges fucked that final, happens often when the scoring is overdone too early. The scoring is always relative it doesn’t matter wether it’s 6’s, 7’s or 8’s it’s all relative. Morgan clearly thought he rode out of that final turn when in fact the 7.25 was for for the first two turns which were better than anything Gabby did the whole final. If it were deemed as a clear make it was a 9+ compared to Gabby’s 8.5.
Are you related to Julian Wilson? The victim mentality is uncannily similar.
I see some delusional, dumb as shit comments on this site, and this is up near the top. Congrats.
What’s bamboozling is how Gabby apparently did excellent surfing for a down carve, poking the lip and a mistimed floater on the end? As Buffalo Springfield sings “ there’s something happening here and it ain’t exactly clear”. Once again the judges ruin a perfectly contestable final by scoring the other surfer out by over cooking the scale. Morgan clearly thought he needed to do more and was looking for a wave he didn’t need to wait for.
Charlie–your English is coming along nicely. See you after his next win, too, in these comments. I hope he reconciles with you, for your sake and well being.
It happens to someone in every contest.
What’s the purpose of the yellow Jersey, when the top 5 go to the finals event anyway, winner takes all?*
I know who’s got a few yellow jerseys laying around…
Sallyz backhand is fire!!
Sallyz on fire!
Great surfin chick!!
She was hard to beat a few years back , even with a ruptured ear drum , at Cloudbreak ….so it’s no surprise that she was technically , mentally and physically capable to take out this event …..and its super tricky end section on the left .
it’s because of the embracing of the fuckwit word , athletes, that was the beginning of the end, athletes = sports = final series or best on the day, like football, or the olympics, nothing wrong with that, as it only is the competitive part of our sport we shouldn’t give a fuck. the real kids with no mortgage or kids will still strive for 3 month stints in indo every year instead of an epoxy carbon wrap,,,,
This shit has become so boring that I couldn’t even make it through the Condensed Heats. Just give Medina the title already, or some title.
meanwhile Kirra is turning on and the whole australian leg is reminded of all the waves it missed
Missed it, apart from Gabe’s 8.50.
Didn’t miss much. None of the semi / finals close. Odd one sided affairs
Did Italo crumble? Didn’t catch many waves.
Tried to boost big on 2 waves, rode 1 to completion, and basically sat still for 30 minutes. Very un-Italo heat, as there were little runners coming through he could have spun on to his heart’s content.
This format is the dumbest thing they’ve ever done. And they do dumb things a whole lot.
So does the WSL finals day still work like ;
5 v 4 – winner progresses
winner vs 3 – winner progresses
winner vs 2 etc etc
So does number 1 rank surfer only surf once in the WSL finals ?
Yeah, correct.