Brazilian poised to make a mark

Gabriel Medina, a 20-year-old Brazilian, was well on his way to becoming the first South American to win the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour title.

Medina won the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast in Australia in March, the Fiji Pro in June and the Billabong Pro Tahiti in August, leaping ahead of men’s surfing royalty, Kelly Slater of the United States and Mick Fanning of Australia. Through nine stops this year, Medina had the most victories and could have clinched the championship in mid-October during the 10th event, the Moche Rip Curl Pro in Portugal. But he was eliminated in the preliminary heats, as was Slater. Fanning finished first.

“I don’t think a single person would have bet on the title not going to Gabe at that event,” said Jodi Wilmott, whose ties to the professional surfing world date to her childhood. “He looked so steady and so confident through the first two-thirds of the year, and we saw a chink in his armor in Portugal.”

The 2014 tour has taken surfers to some of the best waves around the world, including Bells Beach in Australia, San Clemente in California and Kouga in South Africa. The championship will be decided in the final competition, the Billabong Pipe Masters. Medina is ahead of Fanning, 33, the three-time tour champion who is in second place, and Slater, 42, who is in third place and is seeking his 12th title.

“I’m happy that I’m still in the title race,” Medina said after the Portugal event, adding, “It doesn’t depend on them; it’s all about me.”

His poor showing in Portugal sent equal parts shock and excitement through the professional surfing circuit. Matt Warshaw, the author of The Encyclopedia of Surfing, said: “The story kind of shifted to the inevitability of Gabe wining this title to what an insane amount of pressure he has on his shoulders. Portugal was such a crapshoot. The only reason Gabe didn’t get past that heat is he didn’t get a good wave.”

Medina’s success is well documented and fervently tracked by fans around the world. His win at the Billabong Pro Tahiti generated pro surfing’s largest live audience, including those watching the live stream and on television. He has almost 700,000 followers on Instagram and more than 531,000 likes on Facebook. It does not hurt that Medina is a good friend of the Brazilian soccer star Neymar.

When asked how his life had changed in the last couple of years, Medina said that going for an ice cream at home was a bit more complicated.

“I lost a little freedom here in Brazil, but it’s normal,” said Medina, who is not yet fluent in English. “But in relation to my personal life and my family, everything has improved, and we are happy and enjoying the moment.”

Since the Association of Surfing Professionals was created in the mid-1970s, Americans and Australians have dominated the sport. Surfing culture was born in Australia, California and Hawaii, and those places still produce the world’s best surfers. Only two surfers from somewhere other than Australia or the United States have won the men’s world title, Shaun Tomson of South Africa in 1977 and Martin Potter of England in 1989.

Many argue that Brazilians have always been at a competitive disadvantage, trying to assimilate in an English-speaking professional surfing league.

“There’s fuel there,” Warshaw said. "Because of small and not-so-small injustices that Brazilians have had to deal with for 30-something years, there’s a notion of, Let’s go out there and correct this; let’s make this right.

“Medina is just sort of a manifestation of something that is much bigger and much more powerful.”

But the title is not yet his.
“Medina’s worst enemy is himself,” said Renato Hickel, the World Championship Tour manager and a former head judge on the tour. “It’s his nerves. If he manages to concentrate and manages to calm his nerves, he’s in control.”

It is hard to overemphasise what a title for Medina could mean to the surfing world, said Adrian Kojin, editor of The Surfer’s Journal Brasil.

“Brazil misses having a big sports star,” he said. “And right after our embarrassing participation in the World Cup, Medina has a very big chance of becoming our next Ayrton Senna or Guga Kuerten: idols capable of putting the whole country in a state of commotion by waving the Brazilian flag on the highest place at the podium.”

To many, Medina is the people’s champion the nation needs. He had a modest upbringing in the beach town of Maresias, Brazil. Medina is widely known and praised for being a hard worker who keeps his family close. He established himself in his first year on the tour, winning two events as a 17-year-old in 2011, and has career earnings of more than $1.17 million.

Professional surfing requires athletes to have the means to travel to major competitions, often in remote locations around the world. Many are hoping that a Brazilian tour champion will spur more companies to invest in and sponsor young surfers.

“All of a sudden all of these kids around the world will say, 'Wait a minute; if he can do it I can do it,'” Hickel said, adding that Medina’s family did not have the money to take him to every competition. “It sends a message that even if you come from a disadvantaged family, even if you don’t have wealth at a young age, you can clinch the world title.”