Medina cops punishment for post-heat outburst
A week after the most dramatic day in professional surfing for many years, the World Surf League (WSL) has offically punished Gabriel Medina for his on air outburst. The resolution comes after Gabriel made an on air apology and provided a written explanation to the WSL.
The WSL accordingly assessed the incident, took into account Medina's contrition and handed down its punishment, that being a fine of undisclosed amount. Many considered a suspension may have been called for, especially in light of the two event suspension recently handed down to Jeremy Flores. However, the Flores incident included a physical altercation while Medina's was only a verbal breach of the WSL's Code of Conduct.
The WSL's official statement is as follows:
"The World Surf League (WSL) Rules and Disciplinary Committee has completed its investigation into the Medina/Hall incident from the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast. Following conversations with both parties involved as well as reviewing broadcast footage, the Rules and Disciplinary Committee has determined that Medina was in violation of the athlete Code of Conduct and has been fined as a result.
"Medina's efforts following the incident to amend any public misperceptions about his and Hall's relationship have been noted and appreciated.
"We wish all competitors good fortune at the upcoming Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach. Medina and Hall quickly made peace following the incident in the competitor's area. The Brazilian Champ also appeared on the WSL Dawn Patrol Show the following morning to address his on-camera conduct."
Comments
Fair enough although almost any fine would be peanuts to him....
Definitely got off lightly. Can't believe he gets to surf bells.
Must be a Gillette staff member working for WSL.
Have you had a look at the long range forecast , perhaps no one from the WSL tour will get to surf bells ........ kind of not looking much like any dream tour . MR looks to get good waves prior to bells contest , i hope they get waves after it other wise this years tour and perhaps any after will be down the girglar . Just imagine getting skunked for waves 3 comps in a row , Hughie along with many others must not like the stench coming from this new WSL carcass .?!
If the current forecast holds (pretty far out), Johanna will be excellent on days 1-4.
WSL would be pretty upset about moving it though. Locals and Easter campers would be upset as well.
Just Ban Brazilians from surfing, full stop! C%&Ts of things.
We should ban bigots first and foremost.
Why wouldn't you be bigoted against Brazilians who are in the water and surfing? Perfectly understandable.
A close shave??
No mention of Medina having had a crack at KP, which I thought warranted a harsher penalty than the swearing. Oh well, WSL have set the precedent. Open slather on the commissioner from here on in....
That'll cost you five bucks, Medina. Now don't go doing that again. Our feelings cost money. Only a surfer knows the feeling (or at least what they cost).
Woohoo WSL comes in three flavored: vanilla,vanilla,vanillas. Be quick. Get in first.
Why not disclose the amount of the fine? It sounds like a slap on the wrist / WSL making out they've done something situation.
Oh well, it's all making it a lot easier for me. No hassle trying to work around the web cast ... I ain't interested anymore. It's all a farce.
None of the crew I surf with regularly are interested anymore either. We've gone from watching the web cast as a group with a few beers, watching pipe finals as a group over coffee's and brekky with our grommets, discussing heats, watching heat analyser comparing scores, to now, none of us interested in the stupidity that has become the world tour.
Guess we are not their "target" audience.
Let the WSL disappear up their own arses, maybe in a decade or two the crowds will gradually decrease.
Know I'm gonna get shot down in flames...
But I don't reckon what he did was that bad, he called it as he saw it.
If Fanning or Jules had said it, we'd be pumping our fists in the air.
Calls for suspension are a bit much... It's not fucken ballet.
Oops I said the F word please don't sin bin me.
A "fine of an undisclosed amount" as punishment. Woopee do. What sort of example does that set? Does that serve as a deterrent to others doing the same thing down the track? It's as bad as the bumbling NRL. The Americanisation of the world tour events and all the twanging, Seppo accents of commentators that we have to put up with is all starting to become a big turn off. Hit Medina where it hurts by suspending him - that'll shut him up and make him think twice about ever repeating the act.
I wonder if this punishment will teach him a lesson he will learn from? .... i doubt the fine was big enough.
What a topsy turvey world- fined for this completely acceptable 'outburst' but not banned for bringing all of surfing into disrepute from his shaving videos.
Anyone comparing pro surfing to other 'professional sports' just does not get it either- Personally afronted that Medina hasnt been punished enough for this and might, wait forit.... do it again! oh noooooo!!! - seriously mate wtf? Fuck the WSL.
The worst thing he did was say the f word on camera and although i dont agree with his critizism of KP (or anything else he does for that matter) he has the right to speak his mind. Get over it! Fucking WSL censorship bullshit. Pro Surfing is going down the drain like snowboarding did when it became part of the olympics. Sucks!
Personally I reckon they should have an octagon on site so the boys can go at it and sort out they're disagreements. Streamed live of course.
Cage fighting is the fastest growing sport in the world so it's not going to hurt the cause of the ASP to hitch onto the MMA wagon.
Imagine the commentary - Pottz : Just a couple of exploratory jabs, trying to get some blood on the gloves and soothe the nerves.
Turpel : Well Parkinson has missed completely with that fly kick and has gone down in a heap. The judges will deem that incomplete.
Yeah balbagmanifesto & mozart ! Certainly deserved a fine for gillete ad ( never watched it or the hall cusswords ) not far from ballet really, by the sounds of it ?
yeah, cop a fine, all good. maybe one of the Medina entourage will have to drop off the tour. couple of words basically repeating what Micro had said to him. no biggie. the WSL need to work out their 5 sec delay so they can deal with the swearing, probably.
and KP is big and bad enough to handle some kid mouthing off and making himself look like a fool.
the interview and day after clean up was great 'sport' theatre, but i already miss Kelly's backhanded compliments and complainabrags in his post losing heat interviews. Medina just says the type of selfish, dumb-arsed, childish bollocks i would've said when i was his age (and my age).
board punching is pretty embarrassing for all (but still funny).
however, any open fist shaking/judges booth storming should cop a massive penalty.
Can you guys get hold of what he said? I mean, what caused offence? Not a paraphrase, but what he said.....
Sheepdog
It's all much ado about not much.
Medina had just been eliminated after getting an interference call. No pro surfer has ever been happy in that circumstance. And there is danger in interviewing the loser immediately after the loss. Part of why interviewers like doing it. Many competitors just refuse.
Peter Mel asked a few questions. Medina answered with smiling bland World Champion nothings. You could see Mel getting a little frustrated, please give me something, this is the entertainment industry. So Mel then upped the ante specifically asked about the interference, and again, how was he feeling. At that point, Medina's wall of blandness cracked a little, his eyes went a little funny, and he said in his accented slow cowboy drawl,
“Uh, yeah, I got an interference in that heat. I think they changed the rules, you know? I wish you guys could explain the rules. Because I didn’t get it, because it just happened in my heat because one guy was sitting, like, down at the point… I didn’t touch him. I didn’t see the footage, but I didn’t even touch him. I don’t know, I didn’t get the rules.
I thought it was one thing, but now it’s not the thing I was thinking (it was).
Actually, like, first of all, that was a really bad call for the comp. We waited like 10 days, we extended two days to get waves like this, and I think KP (commissioner Kieren Perrow) didn’t do a really good job. I hope he can do better.
And second was the interference. One day I will try to understand this new rule.
And the third, is uh, next time Glenn says ‘Fuck you’ to me, I’ll teach him some...”
'Whoa' interrupted Peter Mel who quickly thru back to the desk.
Well, wally.... Thanks for that.... I don't have too much of an issue with the "fuck you" bit.... I mean, a "7 second delay" in the live broadcast would fix it... I think 99% of Tv and radio stations do this... Then a simple "beeeep" over the offending word can be added....
However, as rabbit68 said above, criticizing "the umpire" I think is more of an issue, and perhaps Perrow and co are using the fuck word to cover the real bone of contention.... A line from your post, wally, of what Medina said -
"Actually, like, first of all, that was a really bad call for the comp. We waited like 10 days, we extended two days to get waves like this, and I think KP (commissioner Kieren Perrow) didn’t do a really good job"
Now I've seen players and coaches in Rugby league, AFL, cricket, Tennis etc, cop fines and even get suspended for publicly attacking decisions by officials..... I think that is the bigger issue here... And I think Perrow should make that clear.....
Yep, I agree. Same in any job, you publicly criticize the management, they don't like that.
The criticism was a bit unfair too. The pros did not want to move it to Duranbah. KP can not make waves. Perrow got the extension and the surf at Snapper for the final day was good.
But, Medina was frustrated and his emotions were raw. He did the wrong thing but a minor infraction in my book. A quick kick up the bum and move on. It was refreshing to see a bit of life in the broadcast.
"The criticism was a bit unfair too"
Yeah, I reckon......
And as far as the "minor infraction" goes.... I'd have to agree with that, too..... I think someone has spiked my coffee with kumbaya juice, wally ;)... Very agreeable today lol.
But I think he is on notice.... Just like a footy tribunal - 1st offence = slap on the wrist... 2nd offence = harsher fine and maybe points deducted... 3rd offence = "1 match ban"......
Back when real men sorted it lol
I remember seeing this live, was a pisser.
Good work, Luke!!!
Apparently Medina is gonna teach Glen some real words tho..!
Not sure what they are either.
Could be something like, Praise the Lord, God, Jesus, Hail Mary, You Vatican you..?
Yes the catholic church seems to have had a very different effect on the Zilla's than it did me. I am one of the lucky ones as I can still sit down.
Love the board punching stuff, easy to punch 4oz lightweight sponno boards, bit like an angry 14yr old punching a hollow core door, mum will be really worried.As for freddie mecury performance hows your shaper feel about that? a classic example of the wonder grom who got millions before producing anything and slowly fading into nowhereman. What a bunch of drama queens. Meanwhile Brucey put on a show at the box yesterday, still one of the best surfers on the planet and not a contest in sight. pray for no surf at margs drugless aware pro, got the widgie board and rain dance going here already, WSL suck
Flashback to around 1983 easter sunday..Mike Newling and friends.........on the rocks at Rincon ,wheelbarrow full of beer totally pissed swimming out to surfers in there heat [final] offering a swig of beer.......What penalty would the WSL dish out for that behaviour ,
Brutus do you remember who else was part of it ? Newling ,TC ?