…and stomps cleanest air, ever, in competition… 

Have you ever seen such a foregone conclusion? An event, sewn up, on day one?

A few hours ago, and as predicted (here), Filipe Toledo, won the final of the Oi Rio Pro in clean enough three-footers. He beat Bede Durbidge 19.87 to 14.70 and the only surprise, if there was one, was that Bede threw up some decent numbers.

Filipe didn’t drop a heat the entire event, throwing blitzkrieg-like heat scores of 16.27 (round one, beating Kolohe and Melling), 15.60 (round three, Wiggoly Dantas), 17.83 (round four, Banting and John John), 15.00 (quarter-final, Ricky Christie), 15.94 (semi against Italo Ferreira) and a near-perfect 19.87 in the final.

Filipe is now 550 points behind Adriano De Souza in second place.

Third on the board, but five thousand points behind Filipe, is Mick Fanning.

The other title contenders? John John is ten thousand away in seventh, Kelly is in 13th with exactly half Filipe’s points and the current world champ, Gabriel Medina is 16,000 points off the pace in 19th.

A three-way title race between Adriano, Filipe and Mick Fanning is the obvious play here. And, Filipe, who only turned 20 a few weeks ago, would become the youngest world champion, ever, beating Kelly’s record by two months, if he wins in December.

But so much swatting to go between hither and yon! So much can happen in the warp and woof of competition!

So let’s concentrate our attention on Filipe’s perfect 10, the cleanest stomp in competition, the not-an-air-reverse, but clean…clean… rotation. Yeah, they’ve been bigger hits (John John and Julian, even Andy Irons in Mex, way back).

But moves like this are the springs of competition, of progression. Look, below, at the way he saws and nails and measures, lifting and weighting that front foot for speed, an easy rhythm, and almost without an awareness of what’s to come next. Power and form and the cleanest and most dignified landing you’ll ever see. Tens from every single judge.

As the former pro Brad Gerlach, a surfer who was also rated number one aged 20, told BeachGrit yesterday, “He’s not thinking. He’s surfing so spontaneously you don’t know what he’s going to do. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do. And that’s fucking awesome. What surprises me about a lot of the guys I watch is they’re confident but they look conservative on the wave. Filipe’s excited to be surfing!”

(Read the rest of the story, Revealed: How to Beat Filipe Toledo, here.) 

And watch the final of the Oi Rio Pro, here.