Gabriel Medina calls out Kieren Perrow, threatens Glenn Hall on air

Just, like, a minute ago, Pete Mel lived out every beach interviewer’s worst nightmare. The same nightmare that Todd Kline lived in New York back in 2011 thanks to Bobby Martinez. After losing his round two heat to Glenn ‘Micro’ Hall at the Quiksilver Pro, Gold Coast due to an interference, current world champion and defending Quik Pro champ, Gabriel Medina, momentarily dispensed with his media training and told Pete, and the WSL, and the world, exactly how he was feeling:

“Uh, yeah, I got an interference in that heat. I think they changed the rules, you know? I wish you guys could explain the rules. Because I didn’t get it, because it just happened in my heat because one guy was sitting, like, down at the point… I didn’t touch him. I didn’t see the footage, but I didn’t even touch him. I don’t know, I didn’t get the rules. I thought it was one thing, but now it’s not the thing I was thinking (it was).

“Actually, like, first of all, that was a really bad call for the comp. We waited like 10 days, we extended two days to get waves like this, and I think KP (commissioner Kieren Perrow) didn’t do a really good job. I hope he can do better.

“And second was the interference. One day I will try to understand this new rule.

“And the third, is uh, next time Glenn (Hall) says ‘Fuck you’ to me, I’ll teach him some -“

At this point, Pete Mel pulled the microphone away. But after a closer inspection, it appears Gabs might’ve said: “I’ll teach him some bad words in Portuguese.”

Cue Bobby Martinez flashbacks. Cue global reaction. Cue potential fine for Gabs. And mostly, how boring would the world be without a little passion from time to time?

Here is Micro’s take on the whole thing: “Obviously the end result’s a bit wild with the interference. But there were a couple of little heckles there that I thought, y’know, with priority, maybe I could’ve had a little more room to make the takeoff a bit cleaner. The first one I thought I couldn’t paddle for the wave ‘cause he was right in front of me, and they didn’t call it which is all good, it’s their call. But then the second one, as I took off, he was trying to kinda cut out I suppose, but he was way too close for me to be able to get a clean takeoff. So unfortunately for him, they called an interference. That’s what priority’s there for, to get you in the position to takeoff where you want to takeoff from.”

(On the words exchanged afterwards) “It wasn’t anything personal. I really like Gabriel, he’s a great dude and I was legitimately stoked for him last year. And then at the Banquet this year, I feel like he got a lot of fans – his speech was awesome, and he’s a really good dude. He’s passionate in the water and he’s a legend out of the water and I love that, I think that’s what it’s all about. So we had words, it was more just I was explaining what I was blowing up about and he was telling me to calm down (laughs). It’s all good, it’s nothing personal.”

After abusing the judges at J-Bay last year, Jeremy Flores was suspended for one WT event and one QS event, and fined $6k. And, that was a private meltdown – no pixels, no audio. So, what kind of fallout can we expect for Gab’s broadcasted words?

And so, to borrow Ronnie Blakey’s perfectly-executed response to this: Yowza.