Lakey Peterson just took her first CT win since 2019 and made the race for the fifth spot in the women’s rankings very interesting. Meanwhile, Filipe Toledo notched his third win at J-Bay and his third of the 2023 season in one fell swoop, giving himself some very valuable breathing room atop the men’s leaderboard. Now, only three total spaces remain available (two for the men and one for the women) as the WSL heads to its final stop before September’s Rip Curl Finals at Lowers. Both wins could prove to be pivotal when the dust settles in Tahiti next month and we have the benefit of hindsight.
First up was Peterson, whose last win came at the 2019 Freshwater Pro and has been quietly making a charge in the second half of this season. Molly Picklum led late in the women’s Final, leaving Peterson in need of a 7.24 turning down the last stretch of what had been a fairly slow heat. The deficit wasn’t monumental, but J-Bay wasn’t delivering many scoring opportunities for either surfer. On the 18th wave of the heat, Peterson turned in an 8.50 that would hold the lead through the final 10 minutes of the event. Both surfers combined for 23 waves in the heat with just two scores between them registering higher than a seven. The 8.50 was Peterson’s first and only excellent score of the event and undoubtedly, the most important scoring wave because it secured enough points to keep her within striking distance of Caitlin Simmers in the season rankings.
“I’m dedicating this to my sister-in-law who we lost this time last year so there’s a lot of emotions, it’s really cool,” an emotional Peterson said after the win. “We all work so hard and we’re so competitive but it’s really special when your peers want to celebrate you and they show up for you, it’s a pretty cool community and I don’t know many other sports like that.”
At numbers five and six on the leaderboard, Simmers and Peterson are now only separated by 3,120 points for the year. It makes their respective results at Teahupo’o crucial in determining the fifth and final spot for September’s Finals Day in California. It’s a result that Peterson can feel confident in, making a Quarterfinal appearance in Tahiti last year while the rookie Simmers has yet to put on a jersey at Teahupo’o.
Filipe Toledo took the men’s final wire to wire, on the other hand. The defending world champ posted the second-highest heat total of the entire 2023 season in his matchup with second-ranked Ethan Ewing. His opening wave was given an 8.83 by the judges to win the opening exchange with Ewing by a healthy margin. It set the tone for the remaining half hour with Ewing never catching momentum and chasing big scores that he couldn’t seem to find. Toledo did find another big score, however, posting a 9.93 with 16 minutes to go and leaving the Australian in a combo situation late in the heat.
“Toledo’s putting nails in this thing,” Strider Wasilewski commented on the broadcast right after.
The 18.76 heat total was the highest combined score since John John Florence’s Round of 16 performance at the Billabong Pipe Pro back in January. For Toledo, it puts a stamp on a run of dominance that is getting more and more impressive. It’s his third career win at J-Bay, the 15th of his career, and his fifth regular season event win in just the past two years. All this coming off a scary exit from Rio.
“At first I was like, ‘I’m gonna miss J-Bay,'” he said, referencing an injury that ended his bid in Brazil just a few weeks ago. “I was pretty sad about that.” Instead, Toledo takes a lead of just over 7,000 points to Tahiti, solidifying his chance of wearing the yellow jersey at Trestles and securing the coveted number-one spot when Finals Day commences.
