On the opening day of the Lexus Pipe Pro, the debut event for pro surfing’s 2024 season, the reigning world champion, Filipe Toledo, had a shocker.
The waves were six-to-eight foot solid. Nothing too crazy, for Pipeline standards. A little bit shifty and slow. But some more than decent, more than contestable waves unloading on Pipe and Backdoor – enough for excellent scores in the 7.0-to-10-point range from the likes of Kelly Slater, John John Florence, Gabriel Medina, and others.
But not Toledo; the two-time WSL world champion barely caught two waves in his 30-minute heat for a score 1.77; then, he withdrew from the event.
Officially, Toledo and the WSL cited “food poisoning” for the Brazilian’s early departure from competition. But, of course, surf fans speculated. Many theorized that, given his struggle with bigger wave spots on Tour in the past (like Teahupo’o), Toledo pulled out because Pipe wasn’t his preferred type of wave. Perhaps, he was even scared.
Now, Ricardo Toledo, Filipe’s father and perennial in the champ’s on-Tour posse, has issued a statement to the “haters” regarding his son’s withdrawal.
The whole thing is in Portuguese, and so is his caption. But here’s a rough translation of the latter:
“Hey guys good afternoon. Passing by here to leave a rant, and to thank everyone who sent us messages of support, during these days, in which Filipe has been severely attacked, as if no athlete had the right to have a bad day, and was forced to always be fine, and surf to win.
“Sometimes we forget that they are human beings, who suffer, get tired, get exhausted, have pain, longing, bad days, and that will not always meet the expectations of the haters on duty, and that will cause so much hate, for simply not meeting the expectations of some. I’m sorry, but they’re not machines, it’s a tiring hour, and Filipe is really tired of all that!
“My affection and love to you my son, you have every right to be tired and to have your bad days, and NOBODY can charge you for that, NOBODY!!! If you are not happy, or you don’t like him, unfollow him, delete your followers, but don’t talk about something you don’t know and have never lived in your life, besides, it will not change anything in our history, nothing in what was conquered, but in The truth only speaks more about you, than about who you are trying to attack! MORE EMPATHY, PLEASE!!!”
See you at Sunset, Filipe.
Maybe?
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