With just a solitary world title between the five men competing at the 2022 WSL Finals – fourth seed Italo Ferreira the only competitor to win one in the past – it was overwhelmingly likely that a new champion would be crowned by day’s end. With inexperience as prevalent as it was, performance under pressure was always going to be a theme of the day, and while no one faltered too dramatically there were at least a couple who failed to put their best foot forward in mid-sized Trestles conditions. Beginning with Match #1 between fifth seed Kanoa Igarashi and fourth seed Italo Ferreira, this is how the event unfolded.
Match #1: Italo Ferreira (4) vs Kanoa Igarashi (5)
Neither of the two competitors in the first match of the day had enjoyed a great deal of success at Trestles in the past, and early on at least, they surfed like it. Both Igarashi and Ferreira failed to take control of the heat, with their first exchange resulting in two scores of 5.00 or less. Igarashi went on to add a solid 6.83 to take his two-wave total to 11.83, but that number was never going to be enough if Ferreira found anything near his best.
Initially, it seemed like the Brazilian was going to struggle to do so, with a 4.33 the only score of any relevance he was able to muster in his first three waves. On his next, however, he finally found the form that has made him such a dangerous competitor over the past few years. He was rewarded with an 8.17, and when he backed that up with a 5.20 he established a lead over his opponent that he would never relinquish.
Result: Ferreira 13.37-11.83 Ferreira
Match #2: Ethan Ewing (3) vs Italo Ferreira (4)
There was a bit of an experience differential in the second match of the day, with Ewing having never finished in the top ten in the world – let alone competed for a world title. But despite having little top-level experience at the wave, Trestles’ long walls seemed likely to suit his carve-driven surfing style. In the early parts of the heat, however, he was unable to capitalise, and in his first five waves failed to register a score of over 4.77.
Ferreira, in contrast, started strongly, putting together a 12.83 heat total in his first two waves with scores of 6.00 and 6.83. He wouldn’t ultimately improve that number by much, with a 6.27 nudging it up to 13.10, but with Ewing’s struggles that looked like comfortably enough. The Aussie finally got it together in the dying stages of the heat; his last four scores were his best and improved with each wave, but his final two numbers of 5.33 and 6.50 too him to just 11.83. The way he was surfing it looked as though, had the heat continued for a few more minutes, he may have been able to get the score he needed, but time ran out on him and Ferreira continued on his merry way.
Result: Ewing 11.83-13.10 Ferreira
Match #3: Jack Robinson (2) vs Italo Ferreira (4)
On the surface, Ferreira’s consecutive wins looked ominous for Robinson, but in reality the Brazilian hadn’t exactly surfed the house down in his first two matchups, with consecutive heat scores of just over 13. That sort of number would have made him ripe for the picking against the West Australian, although Robinson didn’t exactly begin the heat as he would have planned. He struggled from the outset, with a 3.67 his best score in his first four waves, and when he did finally improve on that it was only with a 4.60.
Ferreira, in contrast, took seemingly every bump in the ocean that came past, and though he wasn’t managing any excellent scores was doing more than enough to account relatively comfortably for Robinson. In his first four waves he managed three scores of 5.33 or more, the best of which was a 6.27, and his score of 12.10 looked like it may end up being enough. With the minutes ticking away, however, the waves began to pick up, and both surfers made the most of them. Robinson put together comfortably his best score of the contest, an 8.70, with his seventh wave, taking his heat total to 11.30 – a number which would have been enough had Ferreira not responded to the pulse in oceanic activity with even more gusto. The only goofy-footer in the draw finished the heat on an absolute tear, putting together a 7.00, a 6.70 and a 6.03 in his fifth, sixth and seventh waves – and none of those would end up even registering in his two-wave total. He ended the heat with a 7.33 and then an 8.77, taking his score to a whopping 16.10 and delighting Brazilian fans, who, with Filipe Toledo waiting for the winner of this heat, were now guaranteed a world title.
Result: Robinson 13.30-16.10 Ferreira
Title Match: Filipe Toledo (1) vs Italo Ferreira (4)
Toledo entered this contest as the favourite for a reason; he’s been the best in the world all year and loves this wave, and with his best surfing usually occurring in small-to-medium conditions, he would have been licking his lips at the three-foot sets rolling through all day. Ferreira, however, ripped the latter stages of his heat against Robinson to shreds, and was always going to pose a significant challenge if he could continue that form.
Heat 1
The first heat was a tale of two halves, with Toledo and Ferreira both taking control of periods of the heat while the other struggled to muster up any scores of any significance. It was Toledo who got off to a hot start – despite having watched on from the beach all day – with each of his first four waves registering at least 6.50 and the best two scoring 7.63 and 7.50 to take his score to 15.13. Ferreira, in contrast, struggled immensely; a 6.00 was the only decent score he could manage early, and with that as his top score he would have needed the best wave of the contest to date to get past Toledo.
With the minutes ticking down, however, the momentum shifted. Toledo struggled to find another wave to match his best two and his heat total remained stagnant as a result, while an 8.00 to Ferreira made his required score to take the lead a much more manageable 7.13. On his final wave, he gave himself a huge chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and the judges were split as to whether he had done enough. Two gave him the nod, but with three others scoring him below a seven, he ended up with a 6.97 and fell agonisingly short in the first heat of the Title Match.
Result: Toledo 15.13-14.97 Ferreira
Heat 2
After nine years on the Championship Tour and four top four finishes – including three in the past three seasons – this was Toledo’s chance to finally break the hoodoo and earn a much-deserved inaugural world title. His Brazilian counterpart, however, was never going to make it easy. The heat began slowly, with Toledo managing a 5.17 and a 5.67 to take an early lead, but Ferreira looking likely to surpass that total courtesy of a 6.33 of his own on his second wave.
Ultimately, he would do that comfortably courtesy of an 8.60 on his final wave, a number which took his two-wave total to a daunting 14.93. That total was always going to be tough for Toledo to beat using either of his first two waves – he would have needed a 9.26 to beat it with 5.67 as a back-up – but fortunately for him, he did his best surfing of the day with the world title on the line. Toledo was relatively judicious in his wave selection and ultimately took just four for the heat, but each of the last two he took he tore to shreds. On his third wave he compiled an impressive 7.83, before going even better on his next with an 8.67. This took him to a 16.50 two-wave total, the best number of the day, and one which ultimately won him his first ever world title.
Result: Toledo 16.50-14.93 Ferreira
Toledo has long been good enough to win a world title, and with Trestles arguably the wave most suited to him in the world, his chances certainly benefited from the WSL’s decision to introduce the WSL Finals last year. That showed when he beat Ferreira and took it right to Gabriel Medina last year, and with the latter out of the picture in 2022, the world title was his for the taking. And in the early hours of Friday morning, he proved why so many expected him to take it out this season. Ferreira surfed well all day and did his best surfing at the pointy end of the contest, but two scores of just below 15 proved insufficient to match it with Toledo. And so, at 27 years of age, Toledo at long last finds himself perched atop the world of surfing, and the way he performed this year he is more than capable of staying there.
