A gilded return.
Gabriel Medina, 3x world champion, has just announced that he, too, will be part of the World Surf League’s 2026 Championship Tour. The trickle of returning stars began with Carissa Moore under a week ago. She was followed by Stephanie Gilmore and John John Florence. Wayward stars who left the “global home of surfing” to go out into the streets and spend their earnings profligately. They each, maybe, ended up being tempted by proverbial pig food, each, possibly, deciding that a roof over head is better than no roof at all, and especially in this scary economy.
Gabriel Medina joins the flood
They each returned to that “global home of surfing” likely not knowing what to expect. Would Papa Ziff be displeased and grant one, maybe two, wildcards? Would he order them, each, back to the Challenger Series to toil with the unfortunates?
Well, Papa Ziff ran straight out to greet all, Gabriel Medina last, warmly embracing, swinging those global home doors wide, ordering a social media feast.
But do you imagine Jordy Smith, Jack Robinson and Griffin Colapinto becoming frustrated? They never left. They dutifully put on the singlet, paddling out year over year. And yet there are no Instagram posts celebrating their fidelity. They, sitting quietly in the corner, must simply read the World Surf League crowing:
3x World Champ Gabriel Medina is officially in for the 2026 Championship Tour season. World Champ at 20, Pipe Master, 2x Tahiti champ, breaking the 45-year goofy drought at J-Bay, the 15-year goofy drought at Snapper, landed the first backflip ever in a jersey, owns some of the best barrels ever seen, and there’s much more history he’s set to write next year.
Sad face emoji.
But how do you think Moore and Gilmore, Florence and Medina will fare upon their returns? Instant domination? Needing a few moments to shake off the rust? Or, maybe, never quite finding stride and slipping to the bottom of the draw before becoming a memory a la Kelly Slater?
Another question, how many wildcards does the World Surf League have? Is it like the United States Treasury wherein currency can just be printed willy nilly? Are we looking a wildcard inflation for 2026? Them becoming utterly worthless?
They should just have GMeds and JJF surf it out for one wildcard spot at Pipeline and call it the grand final
Got a Q’y 2000 here this weekend.
Thank goodness.
the tour was getting way to fucking ZEN.
too
didn’t you read Chas’ piece on English Lit?
Oops. Sorry professor.
my dog ate my applied linguistics degree.
And just like that, the door slams closed on JackRobbo’s world title aspirations.
poor ol Jack….won’t be surfing till Feb……has no preseason, boards etc……poor kids just a journeyman now??
why not surfing?
Is he injured?
torn meniscus, just had surgery 2 weeks ago…3 mths before he can surf and another mth before he can push it again…….should have been operated on straight after Fiji……..amazed no-ones picked this up…Like Kelly just having a hip replacement….
We got Brutus on the streets with the Deets!
Did Ke11y secure a year long wild card too and should someone let his new family know?
yeah I think it’s in the public forum….but maybe not news worthy…where the fuck are waynes world?
Spoil the kid , ruin the man.
Now that WSL got rid of that stupid finals day, the talent returns with scores to settle:
Gabe: 3 titles
JJ: 3 titles
Bring on 3 title Mick and make it a three for all
Imagine being a top seed and your 1st heat is against Gabe or JJ, especially with the new elimination round rules. ouch
Your best chance might be to get them early, before the smell of blood makes them ravenous.
Will the WSL fix the crooked judging this year though? If not, I’ll be taking my HamSammish elsewhere.
I’ve got a semi.
The real news is the Jocks are back !
After 28 long years – it’s coming home ! Hahahahar
I was rapt to see them win that.
what did they win?
Qualified for the World Cup.
World Cup of what?
The opportunity to humiliate themselves on the world’s largest stage!
Quite unbelievable really. First time they’ve won a qualifying group in my lifetime.
Gabe and JJF about to hand Dora his asterisk.
was about to type something similar
wish they’d go back to accumulative year title too
Just sharpie Medina in regardless, John too
They have gone back to the points title, with pipe having additional value.
Additional value to Pipe?
If someone surfed and knew what to do….. no, Ziff
I used to loathe Kiran Perrow, now I would offer Gwen Walz’s Eyes to blow him to come back. And Gwen Walz’s Eyes would suck him. Clean business.
the North shore community really needs an infusion of a credible end to the year and FFS bring back the triple crown….it’s like ghost town over here in Hawaii…….business is terrible, surfing seems to have been relegated to the gutters…once the jewel of surfing….hopefully JJF/Gabs etc will make a difference…??
HTA taking up the slack it seems, just like everywhere else in the world.
HTA sponsoring surfing seems weird – that implies you, i.e. Hawaiians want more tourists &or money to come to Hawaii. Yay…
Or are HTA the goods guys, managing quality tourism over quantity, preserving local stuff etc.? Can you have your cake and eat it? What’s your local take on on that?
Yes the demise of the Surf Co’s and their respective budgets , has crippled sponsorship of surfers and surfing…and eliminated the Triple Crown of surfing…personally once upon a time surfing Big Haleiwa/Sunset and Pipe was surfing’s most prestigious performance period and also the Triple Crown was a title that every surfer coveted…..it looks like Hawaii has suffered financially the most from the downturn in surfing events….bring back the TCS!
Place become impossible to survive. Crazy expensive but the clincher is the traffic on kam hwy. Can be an easy 60 plus minute drive sunset to Haleiwa.
Such a different feel to the place from even 10 to 12 years ago.
At the moment traffic is not an issue, not many surfers over here , who would normally be here warming up for the Triple Crown……gone are the Glory days of team houses / teams all coming together to make your name in waves of consequence…….hopefully this will be back on the menu next year!
Keep up Pops they did
not so fast- Yago has actually got the wood on Gabe- beat him in several big heats.
This could be the greatest championship ever contested. It’s got shades of Frazier and Ali’s Fight of the Century where two undefeated undisputed champions went head to head. Except we have four champions, all with unfinished business. Medina and Florence looking to put their stamp as the greatest surfer of their generation, and Dora and Toledo looking for validation!
Whaddabout Italo?
Lol, I had totally forgotten about him, and I love the guy! I wonder will he be able to mount a championship campaign with a newborn? It will be interesting to see!
If the tour wasn’t ending at Pipe and still had that final 5 day these guys wouldn’t be back. Maybe the WSL title will mean something again someday?
sponsored by Oi!? oi!!!!
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
The lack of a comma after ‘titillation’ triggers me.
Titillation no longer edifying?
Maybe try new tits!
titillation and triggering are two sides of the same coin!
Is the cry back too?
Hopefully. The tour needs that sort of passion.
Maybe Filipe will provide. Sometime between Dec 8 and Dec 20 2026.
One would imagine Yago and Griff are super chapped, going from an easy cruise to the next round to a do or die scenario right from the start.
Either they are going tostomp them back to retirement or they are going to be clawing back from the gutter.
Probably be easier to slip down a couple starts at Bells just to avoid that dumpster fire.
Do the wildcard entries go to the bottom of the draw? If so, how do they pick who goes to the bottom and who is second from bottom when you have 2 wildcards with season exemptions? Genuine questions.
Top seed gets bottom seed to start and up until the bracket stage.
Wilcards spots stay that way all year, though points count to your qualifying spot.
Pretty sure anyway, it’s been so long since there’s been an event.
Negs would know.
Depends on the swell at each event. Don’t forget there are more chicks on tour now so each event will have a shorter time frame to maximize conditions ( I think ).
A 3 or 4 day extension of the waiting periods would have really helped. Stoked on the rest of the improvements though.
I’m more pumped on Gabe than the others. I hope he still has the ANIMAL in him
What did Gwen Walz’s eyes ever do to you?
My original handle was Gwen Walz’s crazy eyes but discus changed it.
Have you ever see footage of her? Total psycho
Discuss has some crazy filters.
can’t even post a photo of a gun or speculate a wager on birth gender nowadays without getting soft shadow banned.
Glad you warned Gwen Walz’s Eyes, she’s very susceptible to influences and has trouble discerning truth so people should look out for her, thanks from the infinity to Ghost of Jack. Well done lad. Help the old gal up the stairs will ya?
I’m thinking you two need to get a room🤣
Hippy is a phony.
is he smart Phone y?
No. I feel for the guy. He’s hurting inside
What he isn’t really a hippy?
Menopause has ruined me.
I got manopause !
You calling Neymar an animal?
To be honest I think Gabe has gone soft. Massive bucks and fame numbs the animal drive.
No idea what he and Neymar do behind closed doors nor do I care if Matt Branson wears a cock ring. Live and let live mate
Such a great Grinder account name. Hope you do well.
Gotta make a buck somehow before A.I. puts us all on the dole.