TEAHUPO’O, Tahiti — Gabriel Medina is a competitive surfing machine. A jewellery-clad, helicopter-riding superstar, the Brazilian is a tattooed terminator who paddles faster, pulls into the tube deeper and flies higher than just about anyone who ever rode a surfboard.
John John Florence is something else entirely.
With his penchant for sailing and beekeeping, self-deprecating chuckle and the kind of facial hair popular with teenage snowboarders, the American’s ice-cool style makes him the surfers’ surfer.
On waves of consequence like those seen in Teahupo’o, however, it is clear they are two elite surfers at the top of their powers, a near-perfect rivalry of yin and yang.
Medina won the Paris Olympics bronze medal in Tahiti this week, giving him bragging rights over Florence, but both were beaten by Australian tube wizard Jack Robinson in capricious waves where gold was won by Tahitian local hero Kauli Vaast.
Still, Hawaii’s Florence leads the professional world tour and is on course to win his third world title to match Medina’s tally.
Florence’s popularity does not rely on that, though.
“From an aesthetically pleasing perspective, I feel like almost everyone would agree that he’s the pinnacle of style and power and grace,” said Shane Dorian, a former tour surfer, big wave legend and the Team USA coach.
“How everybody mind surfs, John actually surfs.
“John has put a crazy amount of work in to chase his dream but it doesn’t look like it. Whereas you can see it with Gabe — he’s done the work and it shows. He’s very much a contest machine and a competitive juggernaut.”
Medina, 30, was born and raised in Sao Paulo and began surfing at the age of 4.
He joined the world championship tour in 2011 at 17 and became the youngest men’s world champion in 2014, claiming two more titles in 2018 and 2021.
Medina added more Instagram followers than Florence has in total after a viral Olympic photo last week.
“Surfing has become basically the sport of Brazil, outside of soccer, which is pretty hard to say, given that soccer was their thing for almost 100 years,” said Mitchell Salazar, a former world-class surfer turned commentator.
“I’d put him right up there with Pele and Ayrton Senna in terms of biggest Brazilian sports figures ever.”
Florence, a year older at 31, was raised by a single mum, mostly on the sands of O‘ahu’s North Shore. He was surfing the notorious Pipeline and traveling the world for surf before he was a teen.
He joined the world tour the same year as Medina and won world titles back-to-back in 2016 and 2017. Other world title campaigns and his Tokyo Olympic ambitions were wrecked by injuries.
During his off time, Florence can often be found foiling and sailing around the world with friends or his wife, Lauryn Cribb, who gave birth to their first child in May.
“John’s also really into bees and farming and stuff like that. That’s his idea of a good time,” said Dorian.
“With Gabe, it’s ‘Let’s go to all-white parties in Rio de Janeiro with Formula One stars and soccer stars’ and all that.
“So they definitely have a completely different lifestyle and their idea of fun is completely different.”
Different approach
A comparison of two recent waves illustrates their very different approaches to surfing.
In dangerous surf in the third round at the Olympics, Medina caught a huge blue wall, crouched low, fingers spread and eyes wide open.
He came speeding out of the tube, claiming it with his hands high in the air, imploring judges to give him a perfect 10. As he kicked out of the wave, he raised one arm, finger extended, and flew into an instant iconic Olympic moment.
Florence on the other hand, can make the near impossible look mundane.
In the world’s most dangerous waves, he plays between the plunging lip and the sharp coral inches below with the insouciance of a matador.
On a similar wave at the Tahiti Pro in May, Florence also pulled into heavy tube.
At the critical moment, instead of grabbing the rail of his surfboard for stability and gunning for the exit, he stood erect, head bowed, arms held low and palms upturned in supplication, shrouded in a blast of spray as he shot into the channel.
There was no claim, just an adjustment of the cuff of his wetsuit — James Bond leaving the casino after dealing with five bad guys.
Italians have a word for it, albeit from the 16th century, “sprezzatura”.
“That word is not used very often, but I know the concept,” Italian surfer Leonardo Fioravanti said.
“The concept, especially for Italian living, is everything we do is with style and grace. And you can connect it to surfing — surfing is a sport that’s a lot to do with style and grace.
“The heavier it gets, the more comfortable he feels, you know, that’s just John John for you. And that’s because he grew up in Hawai‘i and conditions like that — he feels comfortable in those conditions.”
Florence, of course, is nonplussed when asked about his effortless approach.
“No, its definitely not something I think about when I’m surfing,” he told Reuters after scoring the highest heat total of the first round in the Olympics.
“I just surf how I like to surf. I surf a lot, I love surfing, and so when I go into a heat, I just surf how I would surf on any other day.”
The ‘Gabe rule’
Medina does kind of the same thing, but his way is very different.
Late in a crucial, low-scoring heat at Pipeline in 2019, Medina dropped in without priority on countryman Caio Ibelli, taking an interference penalty but preventing his rival from riding a wave that might have given him a winning total.
Salazar said Medina had no qualms about playing the villain.
“At that point, they still hadn’t implemented the rule that is now known as the ‘Gabe rule’,” Salazar said.
“You can’t do that now, you’ll be (disqualified) — it’s just unsportsmanlike. But until that point, and it was legal, he did everything that was within his legal boundaries.”
For Dorian, that moment epitomized the difference between the two surfers.
“John would never win like that. It’s just that simple,” he said. “John wants to win his way. Gabriel will win any way.”
