A few days ago, Italo Ferreira won the Pipe Masters and a world title. He did it by beating Gabriel Medina in the finals, and it was amazing. Medina’s road to the finals was a rocky one, to say the least, but love him or hate him, the guy surfs better than nearly everyone. He’s also one of the most competitively savvy surfers on earth.
Medina had a fantastic year. Two event wins, countless finals, and an insane amount of quarter-finals. He scored enormous tubes, hit huge ramps, and as usual, did things on a surfboard that most can’t even fathom doing.
Although he didn’t win a third world title this time around, he’s hellbent on becoming one of the few who have three of them. “I have a goal,” he said. “It’s to become a 3x World Champion. I’m working to get that – and that’s it.”
