Mateus Herdy’s Saquarema Selections Are In

Place your bets over at Betonline.AG

Mateus Herdy — Surf100, Stab High(way), and No Contest standout — is one of Gen Z’s most gifted surfers. Yet he’s still funding the CT dream on the smell of an oily rag, despite wicked skills, plump gray matter and a bone structure that could end wars. No big sticker. No rich uncle. And, a wife with expensive taste.

Desperate times, desperate measures: these days, he’s cashing checks from BetOnline.AG — surfing’s most dependable creditor.

For the record: Herdy was the first to throw two punts at Stab High Japan, on a wave most had pegged as a one-hit wonder. He pioneered the combo but couldn’t quite ride it out. Then Julian Wilson saw it, landed it, and rode the concept all the way to the final.

Nice of him to buff Mateus out with some Rivvia merch in return.

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Ahead of the Vivo Rio Pro, the 24-year-old, who finished fifth here in 2022 as a wildcard, is dropping his picks.

And surprise: he’s backing his countrymen. For good reason. Brazil has owned this event. The last non-Brazilian to win a CT on home soil was John John Florence at Barra da Tijuca in 2016. Two of the last three finals in Saquarema have been all-Brazilian affairs: Filipe vs. Sammy in ’22, Italo vs. Yago in ’23. Not exactly a welcoming mat for foreign passports.

Odd: that Mateus isn’t in the draw — or on tour at all.

At the start of 2025, Medina pulled out of the opening leg with a torn pec. But rather than hand off his wildcard, he clutched it, slating his return in El Salvador. Guess what? El Salvador came and went. So did five more events. No Gabby.

Herdy was next in line for that start. He never got it. 

Classic stitch up.

The wildcards instead? Peterson Crisanto and Gabriel Klaussner. Great surfers. Not Herdy.

Anyway, onto the picks. Courtesy of BetOnline.ag:

Men’s
– Yago Dora: Dominant at Saq.
– Filipe Toledo: Two years without a win here. Third time lucky?
– Dark Horse: Rio Waida. You heard it here first.

Women’s
– Molly Picklum: Saq’s a beast. So is she.
– Caroline Marks: Hungry and due.
– Tati Weston-Webb: Home crowd hero. Crowd loves her back.

Place your bets over at Betonline.AG