With Surfing Like This, It’s Little Surprise Rip Curl Is Re-signing Gabriel Medina For 5 years

As announced this morning, 2x World Champion and surfer with the most Instagram followers if you don’t count Dan Bilzerian, Gabriel Medina, is re-signing with his long-time sponsor Rip Curl for another five years. 

With a moppy head and airy demeanor, Medina guided his pen across the dotted lines (“Have to check every single page!”) yesterday, whilst Backdoor runners scurried along in the backdrop.

“Rip Curl and I, we have been together a long time and we know each other well,” said Medina. “We have a lot of respect and support for each other and they are a surfing company all the way through.”

He’s not lying. 2020 marks the 12th year of Medina and Rip Curl’s ongoing love affair, which makes theirs one of the longest-standing relationships on the current World Tour. With the new agreement, Medina and RC will near the two-decade mark of their seemingly symbiotic arrangement—a level of monogomy rarely found in life, let alone sport!

We wonder: will the renewing of their vows provide the spark Medina needs to win a second Pipe Masters, or has he become so comfortable in the relationship that it’s more of a get-fat-and-old together situation?

Presumably it’s the former, but we’ll know for sure soon (R1 starts on Wednesday).