GABRIEL Medina has made his fourth straight championship tour (CT) final to take out the Narrabeen Cup this afternoon, easily outpointing US surfer Conner Coffin on a day that saw the best waves of the event.
The women's final was also " US v Brazil", with American Caroline Marks sliding past Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb in a battle of the goofy-footers.
Medina is now tour leader, after second positions at Newcastle, the Pipeline Masters in December, and the 2019 Pipe masters, the final event before COVID wiped out the 2020 CT season.
"He is a notch, even two notches above everybody else," World Surf League commentator Richie Lovett said of Medina after his win.
Reigning world champ and fellow Brazilian Italo Ferreira is second on the leader board.
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Hawaiian John John Florence is third, Coffin and Japan's Kanoa Igarishi are tied for fourth, with Newcastle's giant-killing rookie Morgan Cibilic next in sixth position.
Medina posted the highest heat total of the event against Coffin in the final. His 18.77 ( 9.27 and 9.50) easily accounted for Coffin's 14.10 ( 5.33 and 8.77).
But just as was the case at Newcastle in the semis, he had a hard time getting past Cibilic in their quarter-final this morning.
Medina surfed 11 waves to just three from Cibilic, and it was the lack of a decent back-up score that cruelled the Novocastrian's chances after he opened his account with an 8.53 for a superb backhand pig-dog tube that saw him deeply barrelled from the takeoff.
It was described as the biggest tube-ride of the event.
Cibilic was in front as the heat drew to a close.
Medina's second-last wave, a 6.27 had not been scored when with a minute to go, the commentators questioned Cibilic's tactics in not using his priority to shadow Medina.
The Brazilian then took off on a left that he converted into 9.3 from a big aerial, just as the hooter blew to end the heat. If Cibilic had have taken it, he may have bettered his 4.0.
As Medina emerged victorious from the water, commentator Richie Lovett said Cibilic "did pretty much everything right in that heat, but just left a tiny crack in the door, and Gab (Medina) just stuck his foot in it . . ."
Afterwards, Cibilic said "that was a pretty tough one".
"I was pretty happy with my start . . . but you can't give him an inch out there, he can do anything on those sections," Cibilic said of Medina.
"I only had a 3.33 back-up score and I thought for sure there was going to be one more set but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
"I'm still happy with my performance here."
In the women's, Weston-Webb defeated Newcastle Cup winner Carissa Moore in one semi, while Caroline Marks downed fellow American Courtney Conlogue in the other.
Marks won the final 12.57 to Weston-Webb's 11.34.
Moore still leads the women's rankings, followed by Marks and Weston-Webb, with Aussies Tyler Wright and Stephanie Gilmore in fourth and fifth spots.
The tour resumes at Margaret River on May 2, with Rottnest Island from May 16.
