Will Filipe Toledo and the Brazilian surfers dominate this year’s Vans US Open of Surfing like they did last year? Photo: US Open
Alves, Cardoso, De Souza, Medina, Muniz, Pupo, Toledo. What do all of these fine young men have in common – other, than the fact that they are extremely talented surfers? They all hail from the Republica Federation de Brasil, a.k.a Brazil. Within the last ten years, the Brazilian surfing contingent has been making an undeniable name for itself on the ASP Tour and in competitive surfing more generally. Since 2011, Brazil alone has added four surfers (Gabriel Medina, Filipe Toledo, Miguel Pupo, and Alejo Muniz) to the ASP World Tour. And may I add that none of the four surfers is over the age of twenty-three.
With the U.S. Open of Surfing starting next week in Huntington Beach, California, we have to ask ourselves whether the Brazilians can repeat their performances from their 2012 campaign? During the 2012 U.S. Open of Surfing, the Brazilians literally ran the show in American waters.
Let’s first look at the Brazilian surfers mentioned above. The oldest of the seven surfers is Heitor Alves, the patriarch so to speak, at a mere thirty-one years of age. The youngest of the group is Filipe Toledo, who is eighteen years of age. Everyone else is between these two. For the most part, these Brazilians are young, ferocious, and hungry for a win, and even though the U.S. Open of Surfing isn’t an ASP Tour event, it still is a qualification event for the Tour and an ASP Prime Event. A Prime Event means that the surf competition is held at a large venue, and surfers can still earn points for their ASP Tour campaign. All seven Brazilians are also in the top 34 of the ASP Rankings, and between them, they have a total of six Tour victories in the last five years (Medina contributing two, while De Souza has the other four).
During the 2012 U.S. Open of Surfing, the Brazilians put on a clinic. Although none of these seven won the competition, at least four of them made it to the quarterfinals. Gabriel Medina made it to the semi-finals, and Miguel Pupo made it to the finals before losing to the eventual winner, Australian Julian Wilson. Four Brazilians squared up against each other in the quarterfinals, with Adriano de Souza losing to Medina and Filipe Toledo losing to Miguel Pupo. Imagine if these fellow countrymen did not have to go head to head. The U.S. Open could have had a final four of all Brazilians. If that were the case, they could change the name of the competition to the Brazilian Open of Surfing. The other three Brazilians in the competition, Alejo Muniz, William Cardoso, and Heitor Alves, all made it to at least the Round of 48 before being eliminated.
The question is, can the Brazilians repeat their performances from last year? Will we have four Brazilians in the top sixteen again? Does this wave at Huntington Beach favor these seven surfers? All we know is that all seven of these surfers have the potential to win any competition at any time. Hopefully they will all put on the same show as last year, and bring the heat once again. VIVA LA BRASIL!
