Photo: Stance
When, by chance, I happen to interact with a celebrity it normally goes one of two ways. With the real A-listers – provided I actually admire their work – I normally shoot them “Hey, I like (insert whatever it is they do). Thank you for doing that.” I typically get a “…thanks man” in return, or perhaps just a slight wave. This was the case when I crossed paths with John C. Reilly in Santa Monica last week, the voice of John John’s View From a Blue Moon. But sometimes, like when I met Filipe Toledo at the Sun Bum Wild and Free Party yesterday, I am reminded of how authentically human so called “celebrities” are.
The party itself was a good time, to say the least. There was free beer, free and delicious Brazilian BBQ and tons of free giveaways. I think I have enough free samples of Sun Bum’s sunscreen to fuel all my beach trips for the next three summers. In case you’re not catching on quite yet, everything was FREE.
I live by the whole “spend it while you got it” mentality, but when I get to save some cash, I am always a happy camper.
Anyway, back to my encounter with Filipe.
Mr. Toledo was at the event to sign autographs, say hello and promote good vibes. I am not the type to wait in line for a quick, banal meet-n-great. So, I posted up with a few friends and enjoyed the FLOwing music courtesy of DJ FLO. It was free, obviously (like that one? huh? huhhh???)
Anyway, I went to grab my second round of utterly tantalizing sweet potato fries and Filipe was right in front of me; he was alone and looked a tad lonely. He turned around for a brief second so I said hello. We had a brief, barely existent conversation, as the mass of meat that characterizes Brazilian BBQ was right then put onto his plate, but it was clear how genuine Mr. Toledo is. He wasn’t too cool to talk to me nor did he employ the disingenuous facade put on by many professional athletes. He even showed a bit of humility, being a tad shy or possibly embarrassed with English not being his first language.
In fact, the conversation was so colloquial and refreshingly simple that I hardly thought twice of it. I just met back up with my friends, told them what happened and we all agreed that Filipe is just a totally normal, cool dude who happens to absolutely rip in the water.
And the random conversations; completely free of charge.
Filipe Toledo, 2014-15 from ENCYCLOPEDIA of SURFING videos on Vimeo.
