The conversation at the Oi Rio Pro was about the jet-ski riders, and Adam Melling, who beat Sebastian Zietz, had a pretty blunt point to make. “I got flogged on the way out,” said Melling post heat. “The guy hit a double – up, flipped the ski, creased my board and put a huge ding in it.” Caio Ibelli had a similar experience in round five. “The ski flipped during my heat, and I was on the ski when it flipped.”
It wasn’t easy for anyone out there, especially the ski riders, but there had been a warning issued about the cowboys prior to the event’s start, and it seemed to be coming true in these messy conditions. How messy? Well, if 98% of the world surfers had attempted to surf out there, they probably wouldn’t even have made the paddle out, let alone pulled into barrels and taken to the sky as our favourite surfers were doing. The judges knew how tough and grinding it was however, and the big risk moves were getting the correct big scores.
Talking of big scores, I was an unbiased and impartial Saffa spectator as Jordy paddled out in his heat and Gigs frothed on the commentary. A previous winner, Jordy is forever a standout in Brazil, but fuck me Crack Freestone had game.
His first wave looked like a short corner, but a square bottom turn to incredibly fast first smack off the lip followed by a big close-out reo was a wow of a wave, and Jordy was on the ropes as Freestone scored 9’s across the board for this very quick combination. He followed it up with a sneaky little forehand reverse on a medium wave, finishing the wave off tightly for a 6-point ride, and the former event champion was in combo. Jordy was on-form however, and followed up with a tight set wave 8-pointer, and was in the game.
Time marched on. Softly softly the rain fell down. On the beach in the distance, a Brazilian whooped for the camera, as Strider beamed, satisfied in doing a good job for his fans.
As the final sands of time ran out, Jordy picked up one of the bigger sets of the day, took a massive drop to the bottom, and the wave yawned and landed on him, destroying his hopes of a heat victory and an extended climb up the charts.
The following heat was a clash of body weight, as the Spartan threw his tree-trunk legs, cement-bag arse and barrel chest into every wave he picked up. If he was going to lose the heat, he was going to lose with the most power of the day. Matt Banting, however, danced and skipped and cracked his way across some meaty bastard waves and wasn’t going to lie on his back and put his legs in the air in this heat. In fact, with a 6 and an 8 score on the cards he was far from disgraced. Cliché alert, which is itself a cliché, but Bourez eventually overpowered the skinny malink.
When asked by Kaipo how he was going to prepare himself for surfing possibly two more heats in the energy sapping conditions, Michel deadpanned, “For now I just get changed, and put some warm clothes on.”
The man just doesn’t know how far that sort of humour goes in the world.
With The Brazilian crowd starting their whooping again, mainly Charlie, Medina paddled out and started his shit all over again. A massive untweaked air, straight into the flats, saw him pick up from where he left off with his air game and the judges hit him up with a deserved 8.17 for the one move. Deivid Silva was never really out the game, but actually he was, and bowed out to the beefed up former world champ. “Time to stay away from the barrels,” said Pottz after the heat. “They’re looking for airs and combos, and that is what’s winning the heats.”
Round 4? Non-elimination. Not much to report here. Dusty did well here, as did Adriano. Miguel shone out and Medina, well, Medina is going to win this event.
Whether it’s the screaming partisan crowd, whether it is his familiarity with the location, or whether the world title passion tap has been opened up again, the man is the best competitive surfer in the world right now. It’s not about his ridiculous 10-pointer
but more about his absolute disdain for every section, for every lip, and for every high-flying landings into the flats. For his multiple air reverses and fin free wafts. For his much improved post heat speeches.
John John has vocalized his desire for a world title but is still getting through heats by dropping fives, Wilko has put two wins down in his quest for the trophy but seems to have faltered, and Seabass, who has just been cutting off his heroes at the knees in his surprise bid for the title, also hit a speed wobble as soon as the going got tough. Either way it all means nothing because Medina will win. He will win this event, and his second world title. There is no one on the planet doing the shit that he’s doing.
Davey Cathels was ripping as well, just not as much.