Medina shows he’s back and wins in Magareth River – 05/05/2023 – Na Pinta do Surfe

The three-time world champion smashed the waves with his backside. Surfing at ease and with the competitor’s gaze back, Gabriel went through each heat without leaving any doubts and reinforcing to everyone “I’m back”.

In the final with Filipe Toledo, it looked like Gabriel was in full control of the heat and surfed wanting the win. By the way, it was Medina’s first time winning this stage and with that he took a huge weight off his shoulders and now we have to see what else he needs to do.

Medina is now ranked seventh. 5 stages remaining: Kelly’s Pool, El Salvador, Rio, J-bay and Tahiti. Gabriel has a great chance of qualifying for the finals at Trestles, the next stages are stages he has always surfed very well and if he remains focused it will be difficult to stop the champion.

The last stage in Margareth River reserved many emotions.

Happiness for those who passed through the cut and qualified among the top 22 for the next phase of the world championship.

Sadness for others who were cut and will need to work hard to get back into the elite next year.

The 11x World Champion Kelly Slater, who at the age of 50 failed to qualify and is out for the rest of the year was undoubtedly the most talked about topic. And after much speculation, the WSL announced that one of the wildcard spots for 2023 will be granted to Kelly and it will only be up to him to accept it or not.

The wildcards system is the responsibility of the WSL and it is the WSL that decides who to hand over the vacancies to. Of course there are criteria to be followed in these choices. But nothing fairer and more respectful than offering the best surfer of all time one of the vacancies.

Kelly not only won 11 world titles but helped make competitive surfing what it is today. She was responsible for creating an artificial wave pool that shocked the world and I believe she will continue to bring new things, whether in competition or behind the scenes.

Many of us haven’t seen Pele but we are seeing Kelly Slater.

Of course, the time to say goodbye is coming, but let it be at another time.

aloha

PRESENT LINK: Did you like this text? Subscriber can release five free hits of any link per day. Just click the blue F below.