At the beginning of the 2017 WSL world tour, we ran a piece about Julian Wilson’s effort to raise funds and awareness for the fight against breast cancer. He was amped as the Quicksilver Pro Gold Coast got set to kick off, dropping an amazing video clip, donning pink boardshorts for the cause, and gunning for a solid start to the year. Although his competitive campaign didn’t initially live up to the hype with a pair of 13th and 9th place finishes, competing well in the last three events allowed Wilson to turn things around.
In the Outerknown Fiji Pro he made it to the quarter finals before narrowly loosing to event winner Matt Wilkison. At the Corona Jay-Bay Open, Wilson took it a step further and made it to the semifinals before bowing out to an on-fire Filipe Toledo, who also won the competition. At the Tahiti Billabong Pro Wilson pushed his momentum to the next level, defeating a frothed up Gabriel Medina in a heated final for the win.
By taking out the Tahiti Billabong Pro, Wilson jumped three spots in the overall rankings to fifth place on the world tour. With only four contests left in the year this gave him a legitimate shot at winning the world title, and ideally a bigger platform for spreading the word about breast cancer.
The final between Wilson and Medina was good one – as they often are at Teahupoo. Medina took an early lead, forcing Wilson to make an improbable comeback. Instead of caving, Wilson found a few gems towards the end of the heat and came out on top. Even if you’re generally not into competitive surfing, the highlight reel from the final is worth viewing.
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