Flashback: Gabriel Medina Surfs 'Best Floater of All-Time' at Sunset Beach

Every now and then, a pro surfer will pull a single maneuver in competition that leaves the judges, the fans, and the other competitors utterly baffled.

These are the moments that people remember years later. Like Kelly Slater’s hail mary, perfect 10 aerial at the 2011 Quiksilver Pro New York. Or Dane Reynolds’ everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, gut-busting turn at Haleiwa in the 2012 Reef Hawaiian Pro. Or “The Snap,” performed by Tom Carroll at the 1991 Pipeline Masters.

Historic stuff. Seared in surfing’s collective memory. Benchmark moments.

Another one of those single maneuvers that is still remembered today came from Gabriel Medina in 2015 at the Vans World Cup of Surfing held at Sunset Beach. It wasn’t during a World Surf League Championship Tour event – but rather, the former iteration of the Triple Crown of Surfing (three events; Haleiwa, Sunset, and Pipeline).

So, with the WSL’s Hurley Pro Sunset Beach currently underway, it’s worth a lookback. And a question: Does this floater still hold up today? Best floater of all time?

Of course, that’s totally subjective.

Regardless, Medina’s 2015 floater is still quite impressive. In the dying seconds of his Round Three heat, the Brazilian goofyfooter needed a score, a 5.09, to advance. He rolled in via the whitewash into a Sunset Beach screamer. Then, as he approached the inside bowl section, he went over the lip, instead of under it, locked in for a lengthy float, then airdropped into the flats. He almost didn’t pull it, either; he fell on his back, then somehow, miraculously, got back to his feet, and rode away clean.

The score? An 8.77. The highest scoring wave of the heat. For a single floater. Typically a throwaway maneuver. Best ever? Maybe. But definitely worth remembering.

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