Gabriel Medina
| Gabriel Medina | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Personal information | |
| Born |
December 22, 1993 São Sebastião, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Weight | 149 lb (68 kg) |
| Surfing career | |
| Best year | 2014 - WSL World Champion |
| Sponsors | Matt Nabney, Rip Curl, Guaraná Antarctica, Oi, Mitsubishi Motors, Samsung Galaxy, Oakley, Gorilla, FCS, Vult, Coppertone, Cabianca Surfboards |
| Major achievements |
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| Surfing specifications | |
| Stance | Goofy |
| Favorite maneuvers | Aerials |
Gabriel Medina Pinto Ferreira (born 22 December 1993) is a Brazilian professional surfer, also the 2014 WSL World Champion. Medina joined the world's elite of the World Surf League Tour in 2011, and in his rookie year he finished within the top 12 of the ASP (now WSL) World Tour at the age of 17. In March 2014 he won the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast. Media sources credit him as being the second person to have executed a maneuver called the "Backflip". Medina also became the first person ever to land this move in competition.
Born in São Sebastião, São Paulo, and raised in the city's district of Maresias, is the son of Simone Pinto Medina and Claudio de Jesus Ferreira. Medina began surfing at age 9; at 11 he won his first national championship, the Rip Curl Grom Search in the category Sub-12, held in Búzios, Rio de Janeiro.
Medina won many Brazilian amateur championships, becoming champion at the Volcom Sub-14, Quicksilver King of Groms, Rip Curl Grom Search, besides conquering the state championship three times. In California, he was second at the Volcom Internacional Sub-14, and in Ecuador, vice-champion of the Amateur World Sub-16 Championship. At 14 years old, Medina was already at the finals of the Paulista Championship, became the Paulista Junior Champion, and surfing the World Qualifying Series (WQS) 6-star event Onbongo Pro Surfing 2008 in Ubatuba, where he managed to defeat his idol Adriano de Souza, aka Mineirinho.
In July 2009, Medina won a contract with Rip Curl, and thereafter endeavored to pursue a professional surfing career. Just 10 days later, Medina set a new mark as the youngest male winner of an open age pro competition by taking out the Maresias Surf International in Brazil by the age of 15 (That victory broke one of pro surfing’s longest-standing records, held by Australian Nick Wood, who won the 1987 Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach as a 16-year-old).
In 2011 came the sequence of championships that took Medina to share the waves with the top surfers, surfing the WQS 6 Star Prime in Imbituba, and the two WQS 6 Star in France and Spain. He was also victorious in the Pro Junior World Championship, held in French waves. With his prowess and results in such a young age, Medina signed and extension contract with Rip Curl just in the same week of his debut on the 2011 ASP World Championship Tour, by the age of 17, by the mid-season rotation. Medina went on to finish his rookie season with two WCT events wins (Hossegor, France and San Francisco, USA), despite competing only half of the season.
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