Before this year, the only goofy-footer ever to win the Quik Pro at Snapper was Mick Lowe, in 2004. Occy was runner-up the year before, and Cory Lopez the year before that, but no goofy-footer since those three had so much as made the final until Medina knocked out Taj Burrow by three hundredths of a point in their semi-final heat last March.

It was nip and tuck. And so too was the final, where Medina met Joel Parkinson, who had comfortably been the best surfer over the course of the event. Parko seemed to have nipped Medina’s chances in the bud when he tucked into a deep and longish barrel on his first wave of the heat, getting to work on the long Snapper wall that greeted him upon exit with a series of perfectly calibrated swoops and snaps. That earned him a nine from the judges, which he backed up with a 7.27 quarter of an hour later, leaving Medina, in standard football commentator parlance, all at sixes and sevens – an odd phrase which apparently means ‘in a state of confusion and disorder’, and which for our purposes shall additionally denote the unfortunate situation of having just a 6 and a 7 on your scorecard and ten minutes left to surpass a combined total of over 16.

This Medina duly did, ultimately beating Parko by six hundredths of a point, albeit in relatively conservative fashion. Were his last two waves, taken together, really better than Parko’s best two waves? Like an efficient and well-drilled molester, it was touch and go all the way, but the ASP had recently been to Ikea and purchased some new sofas for the VIP tent, and with Gabriel’s stepdad in the vicinity the judges were taking no chances.

On another note, the way Gabby Babe channelled his inner Tony Pulis – linking together a string of highly accomplished but hardly sensational backhand turns, and thereby doing just enough and not a jot more to get the score he needed – provided further evidence of a ruthless efficiency and competitive savvy that his contemporary and closest reference point, John John Florence, is yet to acquire. Long-ball surfing at its finest.