Italo Ferreira a nobody too.
Professional surfing is, truly, a very difficult game. While the World Surf League has done its damndest to batter and bruise its image, the best surfers on earth still reside on the Championship Tour. Though, let us be fair, that number is no more than ten of twenty-five-ish.
Kanoa Igarashi, who could and should count himself amongst the elite, had, by his high standard, a lousy 2023 season. The Japanese-by-way-of-Huntington-Beach star sat down with Pedro Teixeira de Motas on his surf-centric podcast to reflect upon the hows and whys during a freewheeling interview.
All conducted in Portuguese.
The translation has Igarashi saying, “The people I lost make me so angry. It’s horrible, I lost people that nobody knows.”
The record shows he lost to João Chianca at Pipeline, Matthew McGillivray at Sunset, Samuel Pupo in Portual, Griffin Colapinto at Bells, Italo Ferreira at Mags, Colapinto, again, at Surf Ranch, Filipe Toledo in El Salvador, Ryan Callinan in Brazil, Toledo, again, at J-Bay and Rio Waida at the Place of Broken Skulls.
I understand the McGillivray and Waida smears but Griffin Colapinto? Italo Ferreira?
The world’s best small wave surfer, and sitting world champ, Filipe Toledo?
A bit rough, no?
Thoughts?