Gabriel Medina was extremely critical of the judges regarding the adverse result of his round of 32 series against Cole Houshmand. “This is the worst judging I have ever seen in my life,” the Brazilian said in an interview just out of the water.

“It’s bad for the sport, you know,” he told interviewer Laura Enever. “I’ve been through a number of judging situations, but I think this is the worst. But it’s something we have to talk about, we pretend it’s not happening and it is happening. But it is what it is, it’s happening.”

Asked if it was the size of Cole’s wave that he felt was unfair, Medina said: “Yeah, they gave him the best wave of the series. The last wave was too small, I didn’t even paddle out… But I’m going to try to focus on my surfing. But it’s sad. We travel so much, we put so much on the line, we go away, our family is at home, we train a lot and it just feels bad. It sucks. But it is what it is.”

The Brazilian left the interview there.

Houshmand then explained that the wave he was riding broke further inside and, given the doubt as to whether Medina would go or not, he said he would do a strong first maneuver and then evaluate whether he would leave the wave or not. But since Medina did not go, he continued.

It ended up being the best wave of the series.

The Brazilian surfed many waves in his heat and was winning until two minutes remained and Cole Houshmand surfed a small intermediate right to receive 7,43 that changed the heat in his favor.