Filipe Toledo winning the Jeep Surf Ranch Pro was certainly the headline this weekend. But this moment earlier on Finals Day shouldn’t be overlooked.
Several hours before Filipe Toledo and Gabriel Medina faced off in the final, both surfers started their Sunday with some very casual laps in the pool. Most athletes were scraping for a spot in the semis at this point in the contest, but Toledo was sitting comfortably atop the leaderboard early in the week and therefore had nothing left to accomplish in his last two waves of the qualifying round.
So Filipe Toledo decided to have a little fun rather than just mail it in and wait for his turn in the semifinal. Click to the 20-minute mark to see (above), but on both of his last two waves, Toledo went switch going into the last barrel section. He didn’t make it through on his stylish first attempt but he did pop out of a switchfoot barrel on the ensuing left.
Joe Turpel said it best during the broadcast: “It’s not fair. It’s not fair.”
