Italo Ferreira Wins The ISA World Surfing Games With A 10-Pointer!

A few days ago, Italo Ferreira arrived for his heat with nine minutes left, in a pair of jean shorts, borrowed Filipe Toledo’s board, and went out to win the heat. 

Now, on finals day up against Gabriel Medina, Kolohe Andino, and the local Shun Murakami in the final, Italo took out the whole thing with a 10-point ride earned with a lofty backside air-reverse that he just held onto. 

The waves weren’t pumping, but they certainly weren’t small and Italo took full advantage, despite Gabs nabbing 20 waves in the half an hour heat. 

With seconds left on the clock, with the whole field combo’d by Italo, Kolohe stomped a big slob scoring a 9.43 and jumping into second place leaving Gabs with third place and Shun in fourth, also known as the copper medal. After having his passport stolen in LA a few days before the ISA games it looked as if Italo wouldn’t make the event let alone win it, and even though the win means little in terms of Olympic qualification or CT placing, the forever-thrilled Italo was clearly stok-ed with the result. 

The preliminary country results have Brazil with the gold, USA with the silver, and Japan sneaking into third place, leaving poor old Australia out of the rankings. 

Anyway, here’s a wrap up of finals day at the ISA World Surfing Games, an event which may have just given us a preview of what we can expect at surfing’s Olympic debut next year.

Filipe Toledo pulled out of Repechage citing injury

It’s unclear as to whether Filipe incurred the injury in Japan, was initially surfing through injury, or whether he just wanted a break before the upcoming Freshwater Pro.

There’s no news as to how serious the injury is at this stage, but with less than five days until the Freshwater Pro, it puts the current Jeep leader in an awkward position if he wants to hold onto first place. Filipe is already holding a 17th place and two ninths, and we can guarantee he won’t be looking to add an ‘INJ’ to his list of scores before the year’s end, particularly with a maiden World Title in his line of sight. 

Mr. Toledo flying at the ISA games pre-injury, Photo: ISA

We almost had a superheat final

Gabriel Medina, Kelly Slater, Kolohe Andino, and Italo Ferreira all faced off in what was essentially a semi-final (formally known as Main Round 7) on the final day of competition. The heat was filled with small airs and oversized scores (which brought back memories of the scoring from the early 00’s), but it made for good viewing nonetheless—Kelly even threw a faux hissy-fit chucking his board when he realised he had been relegated to the repechage round.

Gabby and Kolohe advanced straight through to the final, whereas Italo and Kelly were sent down to the repechage surfing against Shun Murakami and Ramzi Boukhaim. Italo came out on top and Shun, the 22-year old Japanese surfer who properly rips, made it through to the final by knocking the 11x World Champ back into third place.

My new favourite Japanese surfer, sorry Kanoa. Photo: ISA

Kelly might be surfing for Lebanon in the Olympics?!

Well, probably not. He looks to be making the cut for Team USA, but that didn’t stop him referencing his mum’s Lebanese heritage along with commentators making a handful of comments about Kelly making his Olympic debut surfing for Lebanon.

This photo was labelled USA-Kelly-Slater, but perhaps that’ll change to Lebanon for 2020. Photo: ISA

That is of course assuming that Lebanon doesn’t have any up and coming surfers ready to pip the GOAT from his post.

Other than that…

It wasn’t pumping, but it wasn’t the worst comp we’ve ever seen. The structure took a little to get used to—full explanation by the very smart and obsessed Michael Ciaramella here—but it was good to see those who we commonly refer to as the world’s best taking to a lineup of 200 surfers and genuinely giving a shit about how they performed.

The CT surfer’s results at this event don’t matter, but you wouldn’t have known that had you just watched their surfing throughout the comp, especially when there’s an important CT event less than a week away. 

Mike has a good explanation of some of the surfers who have made the 2020 Olympic cut, but here are those names if you can’t be assed to go back and read a more in-depth analysis. 

Shun Murakami will be surfing in the Olympics after making the final and placing higher than Rio Waida, a fellow surfer from the Asian continent. The only way he won’t make it is if another Japanese surfer makes next year’s final at the ISA World Surfing Games.

Frederico Morais will almost definitely be in the Olympics for Portugal. Billy Stairmand from NZ will probably make it, as long as another male Kiwi surfer doesn’t make the final at next year’s ISA games. And Ramzi Boukhaim will also make it unless a Moroccan places higher next year. 

Anyway, The Freshwater Pro is less than five days away. C’ya back in the pool, I’m sick of this uncontrolled ocean surfing tripe.