Interview: Gabriel Medina, Shortly After Winning His First Event Since The 2021 World Title

One of surfing’s most troubled relationships reconciled its differences, mended its fences, and kissed and made up today when Gabriel Medina, on his eighth attempt, won the Western Australia Margaret River Pro in wildly inconsistent and occasionally rambunctious conditions at Surfers Point.

After never previously advancing beyond the quarterfinals, frowning on heats being run at the Box, and struggling to maintain much of a poker face whenever questioned about his feelings for this event over the past decade, something switched in 2023 and Gab came into finals day with a full head of steam and the kind of quiet confidence that told you something special was on its way. 

In my role as a beach commentator at this event I’m charged with conducting post-heat interviews on the boardwalk, directly to the crowd. They’re unique on the CT, a happy side-effect of the incredible viewing platform that the Mainbreak carpark morphs into when the Pro comes to town, and they allow the surfers to engage and build a relationship with the crowd the deeper they go in the draw. They’re also somewhat more relaxed than the webcast version – cue Connor O’Leary screaming “Let’s fucken go!” to the delight of the Coopers beer garden after beating Yago Dora – and they provide great entertainment and quirky insights, often from the least likely of characters.

With the men’s final playing out before the women’s today it gave me the chance to talk to Gabriel after his win, and before the presentation. Although someone being happy after winning a competition is in no way newsworthy Gab was charming, charismatic, and working the 3000-strong audience like a pro. To wrap things up I took a moment to compose myself, looked into his eyes, and lowered my voice. 

“Gabby, you and us West Australians, it’s been a rollercoaster. But you’ve won Rottnest, and now you’ve won Margaret River. Can we finally say we love each other?” 

Dark eyes gleaming Gab grabbed the mic in one hand, wrapped his other arm around me, and bellowed “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!” to the delight of the crowd, who roared “Oi! Oi! Oi!” in return, as Gab floated mercurially off to talk to Joey Turpel and collect his trophy up on stage in front of a rapturous audience. 

A short time later Gab and I crossed paths again, and feeling like we’d just shared a moment I asked for an interview. Dripping wet and shivering almost enough to make me feel guilty, he gave me the nod and we were away.

Gabby! Congratulations!

Thank you, this is fun!

Is winning Margaret River a monkey off your back? 

Oh yeah, this is an event that I really wanted to take out, because it’s been such a challenging one for me. It’s taken a few years to finally win here, so this one is very special.

The surf this morning made me flash back to J-Bay in 2019, when you and Italo Ferreira manhandled big, powerful waves on your backhand to own the final day. Your strength was a weapon then, and it seemed like that today as well.

Yeah, yeah. When I woke up this morning and saw the waves I felt really good, it was one of those days that you just think straight away can be yours. I surfed really well against Filipe (Toledo), and that gave me more confidence going into the heat with João (Chianca). I had to be patient, and that worked well. And then against Griffin (Colapinto) in the final, I knew he was a guy that I really needed to go big against. He surfed so strong in the semis against John, and I knew he was going to try and get the good ones and wasn’t going to hold back. So, yeah, it feels good to win with a good mix of performances on the final day. 

Is there a bit of a generational shift going on at the moment? You, John John Florence, Filipe and Italo have ruled the roost for so long, and now there’s Griff, Ethan Ewing, Jack Robinson and João coming on strong. Do you guys want to mark your turf and show the kids who’s boss?

Of course! As you said, we’re all from the same generation – me, John, Italo, Filipe – and yeah, we see the new guys coming up for sure. I think they make less mistakes, they are more consistent, and that makes it more challenging. You have to pay attention to everyone on tour, but you really have to watch out with those guys so it’s good to have a win against them. We are old now man! We gotta show respect! 

Tell us about João. He’s the world number one and his best mate Sammy Pupo is an incredible talent too. Are they the future of Brazilian surfing?

João is doing a good job. He’s still improving, but his surfing is already there. I’m so impressed with him, after falling off the tour last year he came back, and he came back stronger, and now he’s in the yellow jersey. And Sammy is a great surfer too. He needs to do some work in the Challengers like João did last year but he’ll back too. Brazil has some good kids coming up, a few great juniors too, but right now João is the one who’s out in front, he’s putting in the work and he’s doing really good.

Does that fire you up? 

Of course. We’ve been pushing each other for a long time, but all the surfers fire me up. It started with John back in the day, I was watching him so much and and I’m pretty sure he was watching me too, and once he got a good result I really wanted to get a result too, you know? And then Filipe came on and really pushed the level again. So it’s good to have someone like João or Filpe or Italo around, because it helps you improve your surfing, you know you have to try and get better in every situation in a heat, because those guys are not here to play.

What’s it like when you have a matchup like the one with Filipe today? It was the first heat of the day and you’ve had four days to think about it. 

Filipe and I always have great heats, he’s so strong. I was feeling good and I knew if there were big waves I was gonna perform well. I had a good board under my feet too, which gave me a lot of confidence. I was really looking for forward to surfing with Filipe, but he’s so good that you never know. I was feeling good, that was all I could do, and the day went from there.

Last question. You look really happy. Is life good for Gabriel Medina?

Yeah! I’m enjoying life. I’m here with friends from home, and we’ve been getting waves around here and doing things a little bit different, as well as putting in plenty of work. My friends have been working with me too, which has been fun. I feel really healthy, and it feels great to be in a good rhythm again. It’s hard to have time away from contests and then come back without making mistakes, but now I’m feeling good again and I want to keep going.