Filipe Toledo has had quite the year already.
After a disappointing performance at the 2024 Lexus Pipe Pro, the reigning two-time World Champion announced he’ll be taking a one-year mental health break from competition.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce today that I am withdrawing for the remainder of the 2024 Championship Tour season,” shared Toledo in a statement. “This decision has been so hard for me to make, and it comes after days of discussion with those closest to me. The WSL has been very supportive, and I am very grateful that they have granted me the wildcard for the start of the 2025 season. I am committed to coming back better than ever.”
After his withdrawal — and on the back of a few years of criticism of his bigger-wave surfing ability — a narrative blossomed. Despite the fact that his reason for his Pipeline exit was food-poisoning, the online community called bullshit. That response may or may not have played a role in his year off, but he’s been honest about some of his struggles competing at the highest level of surfing.
“I had to look for help – and it definitely helped me a lot,” Toledo told The Inertia‘s Joe Carberry in May, 2023. “The more I can talk about it, the more I can help people out, the happier I’m going to be. It was during 2019. That’s when I started seeking help. My wife was big in helping me out (at first). Then it got to the point where it was too much, and she couldn’t help me and I had to look for help. I did. And it’s been pretty good.”
Although Toledo yanked himself from CT competition, he’s still vying for an Olympic spot. He recently competed in the ISA Games in Puerto Rico, a necessary component of Olympic qualification.
Getting to where he’s at in surfing has been a long road for Toledo. In the third episode of his vlog, Peace & Power the viewer is privy to Toledo’s memories of his life in Brazil.
“It was very simple,” he says of his youth. “We had a bike, a board, and some coins. We ate sweet bread when we were hungry and went and surfed… in today’s world, everything is very demanding. It’s a rush. Everything has to be done immediately. Everything must be posted. You have to speak, you have to be somewhere, and so on.”
Featuring Toledo himself, a few of his childhood friends, and his brother Matheus, it tells a little more about “his social work, and ways of impacting future generations in the place where he was raised.”
