Carissa Moore and Filipe Toledo are crowned in Saquarema. Photo: WSL//Thiago Diz.
Energy was the name of the game in Brazil at the Oi Rio Pro in Saquarema. From the thousands of raucous fans on the beach to the thumping surf with tubes and airs galore, Rio delivered. Finals day featured clean, six to eight-foot waves that were the perfect canvas for the powerful surfing of 2022 Oi Rio Champs Carissa Moore and Filipe Toledo.
Carissa throws some spray. Photo: WSL//Daniel Smorigo.
Despite basically living in the yellow jersey, it’s been a sleepy year for Carissa, at least by her standards. Without a CT victory to her name this season, she’s relied on three second-place finishes (Pipeline, Bells Beach, and G-Land) to elevate her above what’s been a very strong field of female surfers. And as the clock ticked down during the women’s final at Rio, it looked like she was going to give up her yellow jersey with another runner-up finish to Johanne Defay, who was well on her way to earning the yellow jersey herself with dynamic surfing at Saquarema.
Johanne’s been on a tear recently, winning at G-Land and ending third in El Salvador. She kept the energy alive in Rio with a heat total of 12.33 in the final. She got out to an early lead against Carissa, the yellow jersey heading into J-Bay within her grasp. That was the story for most of the heat, until, with a minute left on the clock, Carissa went for broke on one of the bigger waves of the heat, dropping a two-turn combo that came in at a 9.50, flipping the matchup in the final 30 seconds and earning her first CT victory of the season. A tearful Carissa tried to put her emotions into words during the post-heat interview.
“I’m kinda emotional because It’s been a tiring year, and you know, the self-doubt comes back and I was literally surrendering. I was like ‘you know what, if I get another second, this has been such a blessing, I’ve had such a good trip with good people and I feel so much love.’ And then the universe sent me that wave and I’m just so grateful.”
All Brazil on Finals Day. Photo: WSL//Thiago Diz.
On the men’s side, it was all about Brazil. With four Brazilians in the semi finals, the question was which hometown hero would rise. Samuel Pupo continued his rookie run of excellence against Italo Ferreira, getting off to an early lead and never giving it up to meet a very in-form Filipe Toledo in the finals. Yago Dora jumped out to an early lead against Filipe in the semis with a wave that showed off his versatile skill set, and the two went blow-for-blow, both above and below the lip. Yago held onto the lead until the 10-minute mark, when Filipe took control to cheers from the crowd, moving on to the finals against Sammy.
While Finals day was all about Brazil, the finals was all about Filipe Toledo. After a couple of incomplete scores, Filipe dropped his first 10 of the season, the second perfect 10 of Rio, with a massive backside rotation. Following it up with an 8.67, Sammy was in combination with 20 minutes to go, and the heat was basically over. The younger Pupo continued to put in work, scoring an 8.00 of his own, but was never able to break the combination. With a massive home crowd cheering his name, Filipe was chaired up the beach, with Sammy getting the rare second-place chair right behind him as Saquarema showed love for its hometown heroes.
“After a few finals, and getting super close and now winning it, this means a lot for me. Three [wins at Rio] in a row, I don’t know if it gets better than this,” a very hoarse and tearful Filipe Toledo said in his post-heat interview.
The tour now heads to J-Bay July 12-21. Stay tuned.
