With the men’s championship on the line at the Billabong Pipe Masters in Hawaii, Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina, who’s ranked No. 2 in the world behind countryman Italo Ferreira, performed one of the most controversial moves in surfing to keep his title hopes alive.
During his must-win heat against fellow Brazilian Caio Ibelli, who is ranked 16th, Medina dropped in on Ibelli’s wave when Ibelli clearly had priorit. Medina’s drop-in stopped Ibelli from surfing a wave that could have earned him a possible high score for the heat.
A REGRA É CLARA 📚🌊
Gabriel medina interfere a onda de Caio Ibelli para evitar uma possível virada. Mesmo perdendo uma das notas, o bicampeão avança para as quartas.
Essa é a diferença entre um atleta e um campeão, Medina usou a regra ao seu favor e continua na busca pelo tri. pic.twitter.com/Oh9cW43F7L
— 𝙏𝙧𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙝𝙖 (@triquilhabr) December 19, 2019
The conditions at Pipe have been poor for days, but with the contest window closing, the World Surf League (the governing body of surfing) has had no choice but to run the event despite the lackluster waves. Poor wave quality has meant that surfers have to maximize every chance they get, since scoring waves have been pretty scarce.
Per WSL rules, surfers are given points for each ride, with the top two rides being tallied for an overall total. In the 45-minute heat, Medina rode a handful of waves that he crashed out early on. For his best ride, Medina earned a respectable 4.23. His second best ride earned him a 2.3. Ibelli, who has no chance of winning the world title but still hoped to make a strong showing at Pipe, had 5 waves, all scored under a point.
In the closing minutes of the heat, Medina gave up priority to Ibelli as a wave with a good scoring potential opened up. It could have been Ibelli’s best ride, but Medina, sensing that even one good ride from Ibelli would kill his chances of advancing at Pipe and thus eliminate him from world title contention, dropped in on it.
HOLY. Medina just dropped in when Ibelli had priority. BANANAS. pic.twitter.com/kruFS6A2o8
— Hemal Jhaveri (@hemjhaveri) December 19, 2019
It was a bold, shocking move that has caused plenty of outrage. Medina was issued a priority interference penalty for his actions, which means that he doesn’t receive points for the wave he dropped in on, and that his second best wave is discounted from his total score.
Still, due to the terrible conditions and Ibelli’s inability to get any really solid rides in, Medina was able to advance to the quarterfinal with just a 4.83.
After the heat, Ibelli spoke with the WSL and said that he heard Medina’s coach and stepfather, Charlie, yelling at him from the beach.
“He was saying, ‘now you can burn him, now you can burn him‘,” Ibelli said.
Medina’s drop-in may have been a tactically genius move, since he knew that, even with the penalty, he’d still win the heat, but it’s also still really poor form and sportsmanship.
In his post-surf interview, Medina said he simply used the rule book to his advantage.
This also isn’t the first time Ibelli and Medina have clashed. At their last meeting at the MEO Rip Curl Pro in Portugal in October, Medina similarly dropped in on Ibelli’s wave, for reasons that are still confounding, and cost himself the chance to lock up the world title right there.
“He plays dirty, and he’ll do anything to win and that’s the mindset of a champion,” Ibelli said.
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