“Foot-to-the-floor breathing chamber raining
monster chandos or peewee stall drag for a bit of extra
Vishnu. Not even close in my book.”
One month after busting a titty in a small-wave wave
wipeout and withdrawing from the tour, Gabriel Medina, three
times a world champion, has taken to Instagram to pass judgement on
the confected imbroglio shading the result of the Lexus Pipe
Pro.
Italian surf fans very unhappy, y’see, their boy Leo Fioravanti
didn’t win.
Chas Smith reporting
yesterday,
At issue is the exciting Lexus Pipe Pro finals that wrapped but
hours ago. It was a thrilling affair, the North Shore’s Barron
Mamiya coming up against Italy’s Leonardo Fioravanti, on the men’s
side. Both had surfed very fine over the course of the event and
both surfed very fine in the last frame, trading pipelines etc.
Fioravanti was down, as time melted away, but snagged a Backdoor
stunner that appeared good enough for him to take the lead. The
judging came in wonky, Fioravanti lost and his countrymen dug deep
to find a country-first passion that had gone relatively dormant in
the past fifty years.
“Leo you are the champ.”
“LEO 100% deserved the win. The fact that 2 judges threw 8.8 on
his wave is super suspicious. Was at least a 9+ all day long.”
“Investigate the 8.80 judge.”
“Real champion is Leo! 9.80 overscored or 9.10 underscored!
We’re sick of these situations, and embarrassing for WSL.”
“You are embarassing. Leo got robbed in front of everyone.”
“Congrats, Leo!!! You are the real champion. Barron definitely
where the best surfer during the entire event, but he lost the
final. Once again, WSL shaming itself.”
I didn’t see the damn final in real time, a scheduling clash
with UFC312 put me out of the game, but a quick scrub through the
waves and it looked pretty clear cut to me and to most of my
pals.
The always wonderful Vaughan Blakey DM’d me with a ‘Haha!
Trippin!’’ in response to the Italian Fury story.
Vaughan asked, “What do you reckon? Foot to the floor breathing
chamber raining monster chandos or peewee stall drag for a bit of
extra Vishnu. Not even close in my book.”
I wrote! “Yes! Leo’s wave wildly overcooked!”
Now the three-time world champ Gabriel Medina, no pal of the judge’s let’s be
frank, has weighed in a piece to camera, dissecting
each scoring wave.
Baz’s first wave: 8.17
“I thought it was a short wave for Pipeline. It had a nice drop
but not a lot of difficulty. But since it was the first wave of the
heat, that has to be what the rest of the waves are compared
against.”
Leo’s first wave: 8.87
“I thought Leo’s wave was at least one point more than Barron’s
first wave simply for the fact that he rode over the foam ball two
times. “When (there’s a foam ball) you have to have more stability
and it’s more technical. It was a longer wave than Barron’s first
wave. I would give it at least one point more, but the difference
ended up being less than one point.”
Baz’s second wave: 9.80
“It was a really good wave and he did everything right. It was a
fast tube and he was able to pass the foam ball. It had more
difficulty. The score was 9.80, which I thought was fair compared
to the scores they had given so far.”
Leo’s second wave 2: 9.10
“I don’t think this wave was the best of the heat. Maybe a
little less than the 9.80. I would give it a 9.50 for the
difficulty though. He rode over the foam ball two times. He used a
lot of technique, having to slow down. He waited for the foam ball,
the wave sped up, he let go, and rode over the foam ball again. The
wave was just as long as Barron’s 9.80 and his previous 8.87. For
the simple facts of the distance travelled and difficulty, Leo’s
two scores could have been a little higher, which, of course, would
have changed the result.”
Y’think Gabriel coloured by his hate of judges or doth he
delivereth the wisdom of a king?
