"Foot-to-the-floor breathing chamber raining monster chandos or peewee stall drag for a bit of extra Vishnu. Not even close in my book.”
One month after busting a titty in a small-wave wave wipeout and withdrawing from the tour, Gabriel Medina, three times a world champion, has taken to Instagram to pass judgement on the confected imbroglio shading the result of the Lexus Pipe Pro.
Italian surf fans very unhappy, y’see, their boy Leo Fioravanti didn’t win.
Chas Smith reporting yesterday,
At issue is the exciting Lexus Pipe Pro finals that wrapped but hours ago. It was a thrilling affair, the North Shore’s Barron Mamiya coming up against Italy’s Leonardo Fioravanti, on the men’s side. Both had surfed very fine over the course of the event and both surfed very fine in the last frame, trading pipelines etc. Fioravanti was down, as time melted away, but snagged a Backdoor stunner that appeared good enough for him to take the lead. The judging came in wonky, Fioravanti lost and his countrymen dug deep to find a country-first passion that had gone relatively dormant in the past fifty years.
“Leo you are the champ.”
“LEO 100% deserved the win. The fact that 2 judges threw 8.8 on his wave is super suspicious. Was at least a 9+ all day long.”
“Investigate the 8.80 judge.”
“Real champion is Leo! 9.80 overscored or 9.10 underscored! We’re sick of these situations, and embarrassing for WSL.”
“You are embarassing. Leo got robbed in front of everyone.”
“Congrats, Leo!!! You are the real champion. Barron definitely where the best surfer during the entire event, but he lost the final. Once again, WSL shaming itself.”
I didn’t see the damn final in real time, a scheduling clash with UFC312 put me out of the game, but a quick scrub through the waves and it looked pretty clear cut to me and to most of my pals.
The always wonderful Vaughan Blakey DM’d me with a ‘Haha! Trippin!’’ in response to the Italian Fury story.
Vaughan asked, “What do you reckon? Foot to the floor breathing chamber raining monster chandos or peewee stall drag for a bit of extra Vishnu. Not even close in my book.”
I wrote! “Yes! Leo’s wave wildly overcooked!”
Now the three-time world champ Gabriel Medina, no pal of the judge’s let’s be frank, has weighed in a piece to camera, dissecting each scoring wave.
View this post on Instagram
Baz’s first wave: 8.17
“I thought it was a short wave for Pipeline. It had a nice drop but not a lot of difficulty. But since it was the first wave of the heat, that has to be what the rest of the waves are compared against.”
Leo’s first wave: 8.87
“I thought Leo’s wave was at least one point more than Barron’s first wave simply for the fact that he rode over the foam ball two times. “When (there’s a foam ball) you have to have more stability and it’s more technical. It was a longer wave than Barron’s first wave. I would give it at least one point more, but the difference ended up being less than one point.”
Baz’s second wave: 9.80
“It was a really good wave and he did everything right. It was a fast tube and he was able to pass the foam ball. It had more difficulty. The score was 9.80, which I thought was fair compared to the scores they had given so far.”
Leo’s second wave 2: 9.10
“I don’t think this wave was the best of the heat. Maybe a little less than the 9.80. I would give it a 9.50 for the difficulty though. He rode over the foam ball two times. He used a lot of technique, having to slow down. He waited for the foam ball, the wave sped up, he let go, and rode over the foam ball again. The wave was just as long as Barron’s 9.80 and his previous 8.87. For the simple facts of the distance travelled and difficulty, Leo’s two scores could have been a little higher, which, of course, would have changed the result.”
Y’think Gabriel coloured by his hate of judges or doth he delivereth the wisdom of a king?
