Former Championship Tour competitor Jadson Andre sent a message to his home country’s surf fans who think they know everything about judging. The 10-year CT veteran took to Instagram to address accounts that had criticized him for being disloyal to Brazilian surfing after he came out in agreement with the nine-point score given to Australian George Pittar in the final of the Margaret River Pro against Gabriel Medina (Brazil).
Andre made one thing clear: He didn’t agree with the call the judges made when they stripped Medina of priority; he paddled for a wave when it was questionable if Pittar was in the takeoff zone. However, he said that a bad priority decision doesn’t change the score that Pittar deserved on his subsequent ride.
“Let’s keep things straight — one thing is one thing, and another thing is another,” Andre said in Portuguese. “The priority error was absolutely absurd. But (Pittar) had priority, the best wave came, and he ripped it. That was a nine-point wave, period. One error doesn’t justify another.”
Andre said that 90 percent of the Brazilians on tour agreed with his perspective.
He took issue with the flood of Brazilian social media accounts accusing him of being “anti-Brazilian” and calling him a “clown.”
“People are claiming I don’t root for the Brazilians, and a bunch of these people don’t even have a picture on their profile at the beach, let alone surfing, and they speak with the utmost authority in the world, acting as if they understand the sport better than I do,” Andre said. “I only spent a little over 10 years on tour, competing and understanding the judging.”
“Disagreement is welcome, thinking differently is, too,” Andre added. “Loving Brazil doesn’t mean agreeing with everything. Maturity is being fair, even when it doesn’t go your way.”
The Medina priority call was the latest of several consequential calls in the early part of the season. At Bells, Jack Robinson was called for an interference on Samuel Pupo. At Margaret River, Yago Dora was upset by the no-call against Jacob Willcox for interfering in his attempt to paddle for a wave.
So before you type out your next Instagram comment, Jadson Andre just asks for a little humility. Everybody’s got opinions.
