Sep 15, 2021
After the inaugural RipCurl WSL Finals, Carissa Moore and Gabriel Medina have been crowned the 2021 WSL World Champions. This concludes their dominant season as both ranked No. 1 in the world.
For Moore, this is her fifth World Title and successful defense of her 2019 title. It is also one of the most successful seasons in the history of professional surfing as she also captured the first-ever Olympic gold for surfing.
This puts Moore in the elite, as she is the third woman in the sport’s history to earn five World Titles (after Layne Beachley and Stephanie Gilmore both have seven titles to their names).
For Medina, this is his third Title and he joins surfers Tom Curren, Andy Irons and Mick Fanning in the three title list. Other surfers include Mark Richards with four Titles and Kelly Slater with an impressive surfing record of 11 Titles.
Heading into the Title Match, the 2021 World Championship was Medina’s loss. After the matchup, Medina ended up by a mere 0.60 of a point with a 16.30 scoreline. However, Medina only had to win one heat in order to claim his third Title.
The professional surfer went into overdrive in the second heat of the match. He stomped a backflip and earned 9.03 for sticking it in competition. The match had to pause for a while due to a shark in the lineup (reportedly an eight-foot great white shark) but Medina was able to pick it up where he left it.
“I feel so happy. It is not everyday you accomplish your dream. It feels so good to dream. Every dream seems to be impossible until it is done… I had this dream in my mind for a long time.” -Gabriel Medina.
In another match, Filipe Toledo beat the defending World Champ Italo Ferreira by almost three points at the Rip Curl WSL Finals of the World Surf League Championship Tour.
With a best-of-three format Title Match, Weston-Webb showed up ready to surf in the first seat. She had won against Sally Fitzgibbons in the previous match, and was in perfect rhythm with the big pulses that rolled through the lineup.
Related article: The promising swell for the Surf World Title showdown.
However, from this point on it was game on for Moore during the second and third heat. Carissa delivered an opening 8.93 ride, her highest of the matchup, while Weston-Webb tried to catch on.
The third heat was more balanced even though there was more than 2 points difference in the scoreline between the surf champion and Tatiana Weston-Webb. This gave Moore her fifth victory in the water at Lower Trestles.
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Images from WSL