Meet your newest Dream Tour Surfers

The mid year cut-off has been and gone, and the ASP have given us their reshuffled top 34. And there’s some new faces. Two Brazilians, an Australian and a Hawaiian. All deserving, all keen. It’ll be interesting to see what this youthful injection does to the tour at this point, especially heading into the next event at the hi-fi canvas that is Trestles. Meet your new pals and possible money-earners (if you enjoy the thrill of throwing down cash on each event).
 

Gabriel Medina

Quite amazing that, in the ASP’s new ranking format, a surfer can enter the world tour halfway through the year, ranked at number 16. But if anyone’s deserving of it it’s Gabriel Medina, 17 years old and from Brazil. This kid’s all-or-nothing. He wins finals with combined heat totals like 19.10 (Prime SuperSurf Internacional, Imbituba), 19.23 (six-star Sooruz Lacanau Pro) and 19.83 (the pro junior division of the same event). Oh, and that Sooruz junior event? Kid won the semis with two perfect 10’s. This year he’s also taken out the Six-Star San Miguel Pro, Zarautz and (even though it’s another pro junior and don’t count towards the one-world ranking, we gotta mention it…) the Airwalk Pro Junior, Lacanau, where he won seven consecutive heats, bagged three 10-point rides, posted the top nine wave scores of the event and the top seven heat scores. Interestingly though, the kid bombed real bad at the Rip Curl Pro in solid, clean Bells Beach, the only WT event he was given a wild card to this year. Hmm.

Gabriel in France. Photo: Justin Barnwell

Miguel Pupo

At this year’s Billabong World Pro Junior, North Narrabeen, your Stab correspondent was told by Ryan Callinan that “Miguel Pupo’s my pick to win. Have you seen him surf? He’s so gnarly.” That was January. It’s now September and, although he didn’t win the World Juniors, Miguel is now on the ASP World Tour. Kid won the five star Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro in some seriously skate park-esque Trestles and placed third at the Prime Quiksilver Pro, Portugal behind Jules Wilson and fellow-rookie/countryman Gabriel. Think fast and aggressive spins, and pity those who find themselves against the 19-year-old in small, rampy lefts.

Miguel Pupo winning the Nike Lowers Pro. Photo: Hilleman

Yadin Nicol

Yadin Nicol, 26 years old and from WA, has been trying to qualify for the world tour for three and a half years. “The first year, I would’ve done anything to get through a heat and when I didn’t make it, I was pretty shitty on the whole contest thing,” he recently told Stab. “The second year, I was pretty checked-out for the most part. I did it, but I kind of half-assed it. Because I got so close the year before, I figured that that’s what I was supposed to do. The third year, I changed my attitude and wasn’t really getting the results that I was hoping for until the back half of last year. I got a few results and it rolled over into this year.”

After two second’s (Telstra Drug Aware Pro, Margaret River and the Nike US Open of Surfing, Huntington), as well as a third at the Prime Saquarema Surf Pro International, Brazil, Yades is now sitting at 27th. But as luck would have it, the kid’s finally qualified for the dream tour and won’t be able to surf in the first few events thanks to a freshly-busted ankle, which he did in Japan filming for Kai Neville’s next film. Which’ll mean that you’ll see the first alternative, John Florence, in his spot at Lowers.

Yadin Nicol, Saquarema, Brazil. Photo: ASP/Pedro Monterio

John Florence

What can y’say about 18-year-old Hawaiian, John John Florence? He was first introduced to the world as a flouro-blonde, half-asleep looking mini-human, schooling fools twice his age at Pipeline. Now he’s all grown up, trimmed the mop, ditched the second ‘John’ in his name and thrown down some of the best tricks seen in Kai Neville’s Lost Atlas. He unsurprisingly won the five-star Volcom Pipeline Pro back in January, placed third with Miguel at the Prime Quik Pro, Portugal and more recently finished second behind Patty Gudauskas at the Mr Price Pro, Ballito, South Africa (in some seriously incredible waves.) He’s the first alternative on the ASP’s new Dream Tour roster, and will surf Trestles in place of Yadin. Yes, you should be excited.

Johnny ain’t scared. Ballito, South Africa. Photo: Ryan Miller