Back in January, less than a month before the kickoff to the 2025 World Surf League Championship Tour, three-time world champ Gabriel Medina withdrew from the season indefinitely. He had suffered a pectoral injury while surfing, underwent surgery, and was on the mend.
A huge shakeup to the 2025 season. His return, at least this year, was questionable.
Now, it appears Gabby is healed up – enough to test the goods at Brazil’s newest wave pool, Beyond the Club Sao Paulo, where he’s is an investor. It’s the first look at the Brazilian champ that we’ve seen since the January injury, and the first look at waves breaking in the new pool. Take a gander.
For specs on Beyond the Club, the folks at Wavegarden who power the pool, had this to say about the tub: “The complex would install the world’s largest and most powerful surf park, a Wavegarden Cove with 62 modules, spanning 27,000 m2. This technology, which is operating successfully at 7 facilities’ worldwide, is capable of accommodating up to 90 surfers per hour, making up to 20 different types of waves that cater for all surfer profiles.”
Related: World’s Largest Wavegarden Surf Park Comes to Life (Video)
Joining Gabs for backing the pool is another Brazilian powerhouse, two-time world champ Filipe Toledo, who also took a hiatus from the CT, but just won the latest event, the Gold Coast Pro.
Could this be a sign that Gabby might return to competition sooner rather than later? TBD.
Beyond the Club, Sao Paulo is slated to open sometime this year.
Related: First Look: Gabriel Medina’s “World’s Largest” Wave Pool