Medina isn’t a stranger to the kick out. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Gabriel Medina is having a bit of a moment right now. Although surfers around the world know him, surfing is a relatively small sport when it comes to global exposure. But a single photo taken after Medina kicked out of a near-perfect wave at the Olympics put him front and center of the biggest stage in sports.
The photo in question was shot by Jérôme Brouillet, a photographer for Agence France-Presse (AFP), and although it certainly is an amazing one, the kick out itself isn’t anything new. It’s just that this particular kick out and the moment it captured has that certain something that captures the eye a little more than most photos of kick outs.
“So he [Medina] is at the back of the wave and I can’t see him and then he pops up and I took four pictures and one of them was this one,” said Brouillet to The Guardian. “It was not hard to take the picture. It was more about anticipating the moment and where Gabriel will kick off the wave.”
With that said, the World Surf League decided to put together a highlight reel of Gabriel Medina’s best waves at Teahupo’o over the years. Since he’s Gabriel Medina and Teahupo’o is basically a wave made for his surfing, there are a lot.
“While Gabe was always going to be a technical genius in small waves, his fearlessness and precision at some of the tour’s heaviest waves like Teahupo’o or Pipeline is the result of relentless work to get better, stronger, and more comfortable in waves of consequence,” the WSL wrote. “Gabe won the Tahiti Pro in 2014 for the first time against the winningest surfer ever at Teahupo’o, Kelly Slater… The three-time WSL World Champion has been a perennially consistent standout at Teahupo’o ever since, winning the event again in 2018, and making four runner-up finishes in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2023.”
