Kauli Vaast And Caroline Marks Win Gold At Surfing’s Second Olympic Games

Editor’s note: This is merely the Breaking News announcement piece (and it’s still being updated). We have the full wrap of today’s competition coming as a Premium piece today.

Today’s waves were bipolar at best, except for the 22-minute mark of the Men’s final — when Kauli Vaast glided into the kind of trade wind-groomed tunnel that the forecast had been promising us.

Like a Taco Bell burrito supreme suddenly igniting your insides without warning, Kauli Vaast scored an 9.50 and an 8.17 while Jack scarfed down a 7.83 in the span of about four minutes.

Then, the Salsa stopped singing and the waves went flat — leaving Jack tied to the toilet with a single wave score and the Silver Medal Scaries kicking in.

And the waves stayed flat… for 45 minutes — until Caroline Marks managed to sneak a hollow one-wave-set drainer off Tati’s hands to lock in a 7.50, the first wave score over one point in the entire heat.

For a while, it looked like Caroline had it clinched backing up her seven with a 3.00, until Tati managed to find a five off turns and then a 4.50, 0.18 points away from Gold and all that comes with it.

After the buzzer, and after a tense holding pattern in the water waiting for scores to drop, the channel lit up with the announcement that Caroline had won… without Caroline even knowing it. Tati got the news first, looking gracious but understandably pissed. Caroline shouted “Who won?!”, waving her hands and double-taking from the judging tower to her team until the news was delivered and the red, white, and blue were raised.

Results:

Men’s
Gold: Kauli Vaast
Silver: Jack Robinson
Bronze: Gabriel Medina

Women’s
Gold: Caroline Marks
Silver: Tatiana Weston-Webb
Bronze: Johanne Defay