While Zeitz, easily the most relaxed and arguably the most affable surfer on Tour had shone throughout the rounds, he started wobbly and remained largely thus in the final. Medina, having sniffed blood in the early exchanges, never looked like anything but the event champion elect, as the blazing autumnal sun began to dip on a capacity beach crowd for the final time this year.

In terms of his surfing, Medina was bringing everything from an improvised backside flip in the Semi with Florence, landing in a kind of one foot pig dog to recovery, to anything-but-stock backside carving snaps and late hits as the lines spread out and raced in the final, allowing him to adapt to the ever changing waveforms at La Graviere.

As can often be the case, the Semi with Florence, as a spectacle, should have been the final. With Florence making a couple of errors early on with incomplete rotations at the end of rides, Medina had his foot on the Hawaiian’s throat for most of the encounter, having converted his opportunities into the excellent range. And despite the World Champ nailing a 9 for a string of stinging hits that culminated in a shorebreak air reverse, Medina had done enough to make those errors from the start of the heat pay.

“That was a really fun heat, I made a few mistakes at the start that ended up costing me in in the end. This year, the waves, the people, have been so awesome. I would’ve loved to make the Final, but Gabe was performing real well. I’ll look back, and learn from my mistakes,” reflected Florence.

In terms of the World Title race, other than the shuffling of the pack beneath the top two, and the very much outside shot now presented to Medina, it was undoubtedly Florence’s event, with Smith having lost early to surrender to Yellow Jersey. If such a thing as momentum even exists in terms of league tables and points totals, being passed with just two events to go by an opponent who’s already done what it takes to bring home the title, and who is the firm favorite for all matters Pipeline-related, can’t be considered ideal.

Meanwhile, away from World Title talk, one moment this afternoon stood out more than any other. In an epic Quarter between Fanning and Florence, the Hawaiian, having just posted a 9, somehow found himself backdooring a rogue tapering hollow set, and commenced racing through sections. Still in the barrel, the crowd let out a deafening roar, only to see him somehow emerge under a closeout doggy door to an even bigger one, more shrill, more ecstatic.

It was so loud, such a goosebumps all round resonance, that even the otherwise disinterested Gendarmes posted around the site scrambled forward for a look, as if noticing the surfing for the first time. Florence has long been a crowd favourite in south west France, but previously only ever as a contender, an up-and-comer, a prodigy. Whether a passing of the torch moment as both
the champ and the surfer of hearts and minds, has or will even happen anywhere around the surf world (outside of Latin America) from Kelly Slater to John Florence, is open to debate. But that felt an awful lot like it here on the beach La Graviere.