AROUND San Francisco, 98.1 KIIS plays old school funk and soul, and Tone Loc's Funky Cold Medina is on the playlist. Unsurprisingly, funky, cold and medina were buzzwords for the final day of the Rip Curl Pro Search: Somewhere in San Francisco, won by Brazilian rookie comet Gabriel Medina. "This has been incredible," Medina said. "This is my second World Tour win and it has been great. I'm having fun on the Tour. I don't know what I did out there, I just try to go big and it was great to have a final with Parko. He is one of my favorite surfers." The final day was Monday, November 7, the sixth day of the waiting period. San Francisco weather changes from hour-to-hour, tide-to-tide, day-to-day, and whilst some were hoping to see the world's best competing in perfect, 10-foot a framing Ocean Beach, the organisers opted for a decent day of overhead, lumpy surf that offered occasional barrels going both ways and a complicated field of sections and closeouts -- perfect ramps for the new aerial paradigm on display. The day began with a truncated three out of four Round 4 heats, because Pat Gudauskas was out injured. Taylor Knox defeated Brazil's Miguel Pupo, Gabriel Medina defeated Matt Wilkinson, Brett Simpson advanced automatically and Joel Parkinson beat Owen Wright. Taylor Knox is even older than Kelly Slater and he beat fellow veteran Kieren Perrow in the first quarter. Kelly Slater looked uninspired in the second quarter and some thought he sat in the wrong spot and missed a lot of good rights and went down to Gabriel Medina - the 17-year-old wunderkind from Maresias, Brazil. Alejo Muniz and Joel Parkinson beat Brett Simpson and a fired up Josh Kerr in their quarters to advance to the semis. © 2013 Lucia Griggi
It was "on for young and old" in the first semi -- as the Australians say -- Taylor Knox's deep barrel at the end of the heat wasn't enough to beat Medina, while Joel Parkinson showed a surprising array of sliding tails and aerials to beat Alejo Muniz and advance to the final. And then it was Parko and Medina, duelling for the title in decent surf at 1pm. The young Brazilian, coiled tight, unwound with a blast posting a 7.5 and a 9 on his first two waves, putting Parko seriously behind the eight ball. Parko was left needing a 9.6 as time ran out, and the 17-year-old Brazilian was chaired up the beach amidst a forest of national flags. Joel Parkinson moved to second in the overall ratings following his runner up finish, but with the World Title already decided, the ASP Tour is off to Hawaii for the final event of the year at Pipeline. © 2013 Rip Curl
Kelly Slater looked out of form losing to Gabriel Medina, (insert your preferred changing of the guard comment here). He said on Twitter, "Congrats to @gabrielmedinaa for another great event. Slow down or you'll be bored by the time you're 20 yrs old! Haha." Which when you run it through the Kelly filter could say, "Shit, you are me 20-years-ago." © 2013 Lucia Griggi
Parko made the final, surfing with his typical smooth verve. If he does well at Pipe then he'll start a 2012 World Championship speculation flood. "It would have been nice to have won but I couldn't find a wave out there. Gabriel has been absolutely ripping this whole event and congratulations to him. He's got a huge future and I'm excited to watch him over the next few years. I just want to thank everyone here in San Francisco, it's been amazing." © 2013 Lucia Griggi
Taylor Knox is on a rich vein of form at the moment, the people's champ who seems to step up when the rankings call for it. © 2013 Lucia Griggi
Get used to this face, Medina took out Kelly Slater, Taylor Knox and Parko on his way to the win. Scything through the old grass like a freshly minted Brazilian sickle. "I feel good and confident and I'm really happy," Medina said after his semis. "It was hard with Taylor and Kelly and I'm just stoked. That was a tough heat and I knew it'd be hard. I just got my last wave and it saved me. Conditions are kind of fun, it's cold, but it's really fun and I just tried my best." Words and pics, Lucia Griggi © 2013 Lucia Griggi
RIP CURL PRO SEARCH SAN FRANCISCO FINAL RESULTS: 1 - Gabriel Medina (BRA) 16.50 2 - Joel Parkinson (AUS) 10.90 SEMIFINALS RESULTS: SF 1: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 17.33 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 14.27 SF 2: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 14.97 def. Alejo Muniz (BRA) 14.34 QUARTERFINALS RESULTS: QF 1: Taylor Knox (USA) 14.96 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 12.83 QF 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 14.50 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 11.10 QF 3: Alejo Muniz (BRA) 13.83 def. Brett Simpson (USA) 11.83 QF 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 16.76 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 10.93 ROUND 5 RESULTS: Heat 1: Taylor Knox (USA) 14.67 def. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 12.83 Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 13.93 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 13.70 Heat 3: Brett Simpson (USA) adv. Patrick Gudauskas injury Heat 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 11.60 def. Owen Wright (AUS) 6.40 Event site is here © 2013 Lucia Griggi
The third day at the End of the Road spanned the paddle tow divide with inevitable consequences.
A reality check from the reef at Teahupoo, teeth-to-the-reef horror and jail-breaking Tahitian hospitals
A few nice waves in the Mentawai, especially at Lances Left
Day two commenced with disaster and ended in triumph at The End of The Road.
Adventures in the mysterious continent.
Ex-Teahupoo swell will provide power across the South Pacific especially South Shore of Hawaii.
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