Brazil’s Filipe Toledo etched his name one step higher in surfing lore Monday by winning the Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa’s Alii Beach Park with one well-timed air 360 that actually broke his board.
A five-time winner on the World Surf League’s championship tour, including twice this year, Toledo had never before captured an event in Hawaii, the ultimate proving ground.
With his win in the WSL qualifying series event, Toledo pocketed $40,000 and went straight to the top in the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing standings.
Going into the late stages of the four-man final, Toledo held a precarious lead with three others in pursuit. When Griffin Colapinto of San Clemente, Calif., got up and riding and strung together three powerful turns, it looked like he might vault past Toledo. But, seconds later, Toledo nabbed a wave out the back and dazzled the crowd with his full rotation air and a fist pump to follow.
When the scores rolled in, Colapinto’s 7.77 was added to his earlier 8.17 for a 15.94 total. Toledo’s rampability, however, won the day with the judges. His 8.87 combined with his earlier 7.67 gave him 16.64 and the title.
“Griffin opened up (the heat) really tough with an 8 and I knew it was going to be really tough to beat him because he’s been on a roll,” Toledo said. “I stuck to my game with my strategy and I did what I needed to do. (The winning wave) was an average wave. Wiggoly (Dantas) looked at it. He had priority, but he didn’t like it because it was kind of a close-out and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to go and try it and once I hit the lip, I felt my board broken. I heard like a crazy noise and I did the whole rotation and landed on the foam. I was just like super scared that my board was going to be separated. But it was still pretty solid and I landed it.”
With less than 10 seconds to go, however, Colapinto paddled into a wave with potential. He attempted a 360 air, and it looked like he might pull it off, but he didn’t.
“I was scared on Griffin’s last one,” Toledo said. “But finally … yes!”
Said Colapinto: “I needed to make that if I wanted to win. On the one before that, right after I saw Filipe do his big air, I was like, ‘Shoot, I’m going back to second.’ ”
Having qualified for next year’s world tour with a No. 2 ranking on the QS, the season for Colapinto was a already a success before Monday’s finish.
And he heard some more good news after the contest. Toledo, who is No. 9 on the championship tour, is skipping the Triple Crown’s second event, the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach (Saturday through Dec. 6), to concentrate on the CT’s final event, the Billabong Pipe Masters in December.
That makes Colapinto the de facto Triple Crown leader, and he can take over first place for real with a high finish at Sunset.
The Pipe Masters will wrap up the championship tour season, where both a world champion and a Triple Crown champion will be determined.
World tour front-runner and defending champion John John Florence was bounced out of his home Haleiwa break Monday by finishing third behind Brazil’s Dantas and San Clemente’s Kolohe Andino in his quarterfinal heat. That unexpected loss does not have any effect on the world-title chase, but it might do something to his psyche. Florence didn’t stick around after the loss and headed straight for his truck.
South Africa’s Jordy Smith, No. 4 in the world and still in contention for the world crown, lost in the semifinals. The two other world-title contenders, No. 2 Gabriel Medina of Brazil and No. 3 Julian Wilson of Australia, did not surf in the Hawaiian Pro.
Joshua Moniz was the last Hawaii surfer eliminated Monday. Like Florence and Kiron Jabour, he made it to the quarters. Kauai’s Sebastian Zietz did not get past the fourth round.
