![]() ![]() But I just can’t bring myself to fully endorse it. Toledo’s history and sub-par performances at some of the world’s most iconic waves are well documented by now, to the point that it’s become trite to point it out. Filipe Toledo is not that surfer, and yet here we are. His technical mastery of a surfboard is second to none.Ĭall me old-fashioned, but I feel that our world champion should be a surfer we believe has the capacity to win at any stop on Tour. Luckily I didn’t in the end.ĭo you accept the brittle Brazilian as your champion? His skills are not in doubt, of course. In my mind she’s far better over a lifetime.Īs for the men, Toledo’s maiden title was a predictable outcome you’d have been foolish to bet against. At least she had the good grace to recognise that Carissa was the superior surfer over the season. Now she thinks it’s the greatest thing ever. Gilmore seemed confused in the aftermath. The result is not representative of what we have witnessed, a fact pointed out by Johanne Defay in reference to her own flaccid ending. All that work, all that effort over a season, wasted. Moore should have another title this morning, and she’s within her rights to feel damn sore that she doesn’t. Convince me this is progress.Ĭarissa Moore had a lead of more than 11,000 points. She barely surfed Teahupo’o.Ĭonvince me she deserves this world title. Stephanie Gilmore just made the cut at Margaret River. ![]() Wave quality for Finals Day at Trestles was average. Spin it how you will, Mr Logan, but that was not an end befitting all that has gone before. Kelly Slater the undisputed and deserved back-hander of all-time putting Novak Djokovic to shame.ĭavid Lee Scales and I broke down the Final’s Day action, format, feeling from the cobbled stone and behind the screen. He and his employee having fun while the soon-to-be World Champ trembled. While Toledo was about to win it all, Slater planted this right back in the surf fan’s head. Now, the World Surf League team had refused to mention Toledo’s Tahiti crumble while it was happening, refused to mention it in the lead up to Final’s Day, refused to mention it until Slater did but Slater, lest anyone forget, is an absolutely masterful shade artist, the best to ever paint in shadows of grey. Kelly, it must be noted, was one of the aforementioned elderly gentlemen with look of joy. Go have fun, go win the title at Trestles.’” I said ‘Dude, you’re going for a World Title. He looked really down on himself after that heat. He didn’t need to go out and hurt himself at Teahupo’o on a big day. Speaking of Toledo’s Tahiti lack of performance, Slater declared, “I don’t know if he was nervous or worried about the World Title ahead, who knows what’s going on in your mind in that position. Has any previous victor necessitated the preamble? Stab added the caveat that Toledo is finally and “deservedly” so while quoting the great Kelly Slater, who just so happened to be in the booth calling the action alongside Turpel and Mick Fanning. The WSL went out of its way to declare him the “undisputed” champion. It is unnecessary to continually revisit, now that it’s over, rude even and boring except both the World Surf League and brown-nosed surf media seem extra sore about it. Toledo is champion fair and square, playing to the rules of the game if not its spirit. JP Currie wrote, in typically fine form, “Call me old-fashioned, but I feel that our world champion should be a surfer we believe has the capacity to win at any stop on Tour. The anchor in the room, of course, the one Toledo dropped on an exceptional day in Tahiti, refusing to paddle while jaw-droopingly epic waves pumped, two elderly gentlemen trading them with looks of sheer joy spreading across their wizened faces. He laid waste to a resurgent Italo Ferreira in the best of three final final, “putting his foot on his neck,” according to Joe Turpel, which seemed graphic coming out of such a sublimely positive mouth. His reputation as the greatest small wave surfer alive, maybe in history, cemented. Filipe Toledo is your 2022 World Champion, on the men’s side, and bravo to he with much congratulations drizzled on top.
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