Tag Archives: Gabriel Medina

Apple Renews Surfing Docuseries “Make or Break,” Featuring Gabriel Medina, for Second Season

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Gabriel Medina is still riding the wave…

Apple has renewed its surfing docuseries Make or Break, featuring the 28-year-old Brazilian professional surfer, for a second season.

Gabriel MedinaThe announcement comes ahead of the premiere of the series’ first season on April 29.

Make or Break follows World Surf League elite champions Medina, Kelly Slater, Stephanie Gilmore, Tyler Wright, Italo Ferreira, and Tatiana Weston-Webb as they battle for the championship.

Gabriel MedinaMedina 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 World Tour at the age of 17. He won the 2014, 2018 and 2021 WSL World Championships

Ferreira has competed on the World Surfing League Men’s Championship Tour since 2015. The 27-year-old Brazilian professional surfer won the world title in the 2019 World Surf League.

The seven-part series also explores the aspirations, challenges, accomplishments and personal lives of the surfers who compete to remain on the elite 2021 Men’s and Women’s WSL Championship Tour.

The first season follows the 2021 competition, navigating as the league responds to the global pandemic, while exploring the surfing culture along with issues including diversity, mental health, and the physical impact of the sport.

Production has already started on the current competition season for season two.

It’s produced by Box To Box Films with  producer James Gay-Rees, producer Paul Martin and WSL CEO Erik Logan and WSL Studios chief Ryan Holcomb executive producing.

Brazil’s Italo Ferreira Claims First-Ever Surfing Gold at Tokyo Games

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2020 Tokyo Games

Italo Ferreira has earned his place in Olympic history…

The 27-year-old Brazilian professional surfer overcame challenging conditions in brilliant style to win historic first Olympic surfing gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Games on Tuesday.

Italo Ferreira

Competing at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach, Ferreira recovered from breaking his board on the first wave to beat Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi in the shortboard final.

Australia’s Owen Wright took the men’s bronze after a tense 35-minute battle with world number one Gabriel Medina, edging out the Brazilian by two-tenths of a point.

The final day of competition started with big, clean waves that delighted the competitors, but a strong onshore breeze picked up to make the swell choppier and more inconsistent with good waves harder to come by.

Italo Ferreira

It made no difference to Ferreira as he went on the attack in pursuit of Olympic gold.

Knowing he had done enough to win, Ferreira began surfing his way in to the shore with a minute to go, greeting the final horn with his arms stretched to the heavens before being carried shoulder-high from the water by his teammates.

“I think it’s one of the best days of my life, for sure. For me that was a long day and it was a dream come true, for sure. The last couple of months I’ve been training a lot, just to live in this moment,” an emotional Ferreira told reporters.

He also gave Ferreira the first gold for Brazil at the Tokyo Games.

Medina Becomes Brazil’s the First-Ever Association of Surfing Professionals World Champion

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Gabriel Medina is riding (the wave) into the history books.

The 20-year-old Brazilian professional surfer has become the first-ever Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) world champion to come Brazil at the Billabong Pipeline Masters in Memory of Andy Irons in Hawaii.

Gabriel Medina

Medina took second place at the event on Friday and claimed the world title over three-time champion Mick Fanning and 11-time winner Kelly Slater.

Medina clinched the crown after Fanning lost his Round 5 heat against Medina’s Brazilian compatriot Alejo Muniz.

“This is special day not just for me, but for my family and the fans,” said Medina.

Medina reveled in the conditions, which were strikingly similar the ones at his home break. He went on to take second place at Pipeline, losing a close final to Australia’s Julian Wilson.

Gabriel Medina

Wilson surfed an incredible six heats on the day, including three in a row at the end. Although clearly exhausted by the end, he saved his best for last, scoring a 9.93 on his first wave of the final and a 9.70 on his last. Medina notched a perfect 10 near the beginning and led throughout. His last wave was also spectacular, but he came up just short of Wilson.

Brazilian surfers have been competing in world tour events for close to 40 years, but Medina is the first to win events with regularity. He scored three victories on the 2014 tour, including a massive victory in epic surf at Teahupo’o Tahiti over Kelly Slater.

Medina’s momentous achievement isn’t just a big deal for his country, it marks a tectonic shift in surfing toward a new, younger generation of surf talent.

Slater, 42; Fanning, 33; and Joel Parkinson, 33, had won the last eight world titles. Now most bets are on surfers like Medina; John John Florence, 22; and Filipe Toledo, 19, to be leading the charge into the future.

“With the weight of a country on his shoulders, he made all the right choices to keep his head on straight and achieve his dream,” wrote Slater of Median on his Instagram account.