One of Brazil’s most promising groms in the early 00s, Gabriel Medina began his meteoric rise to the top as barely a teenager. In the final of the 2009 Quiksilver Pro King of the Groms against Caio Ibelli, Gabe dropped two tens and a perfect heat total to win the event and make a very big statement to the generation of supergroms assembled at the event, like Jack Robinson, Kanoa Igarashi, and others.
While Gabe was always going to be a technical genius in small waves, his fearlessness and precision at some of the tour’s heaviest waves like Teahupoo or Pipeline is the result of relentless work to get better, stronger, and more comfortable in waves of consequence.
Gabe won the Tahiti Pro in 2014 for the first time against the winningest surfer ever at Teahupo’o, Kelly Slater. The then twenty-one-year-old established himself with the performance as one of his generation’s most gifted all conditions surfers, and smoothly paved the way to his first World Title that year.
The three-time WSL World Champion has been a perennially consistent standout at Teahupoo ever since, winning the event again in 2018, and making four runner-up finishes in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2023.