New Video Of Filipe’s Judging Confrontation Emerges

Ever been so mad you did something stupid? Smash a board over the hood of your car? Throw rocks (or muffins, if you’re Sunny Garcia) at someone? All the above? I know I have. One time after a questionable call led to semifinals exit at an NSSA comp I ran up to my house, jersey still on, and demolished a not so old surfboard to the point it looked like it lost a fight with a wood chipper rather than an angsty teenager’s blind rage. 

Frustrated, vengeful, and dealing in extremes is no way to go through life. And is certainly bound to cause trouble. Such is the recent case of Filipe Toledo. A little over a week ago, Filipe stomped up to the judges tower after an interference call was made against his favour. Words were exchanged and Filipe stormed off, fuming. The WSL later responded by suspending him from the upcoming Outerknown Pro in Fiji. 

Now, a recent video has surfaced of what is apparently one part of Filipe’s actual judging tower exchange. And while there’s certainly conviction in Filipe’s voice, people are saying it doesn’t look like anything that yields a suspension. 

Curious to know about the context of the clip, Stab reached out to Dave Prodan of the WSL. “The video circulating is not the incident in question, but after the incident,” Dave told Stab. “Language and actions were reviewed in making the disciplinary decision. Unfortunately, we’re not able to provide any further details than that.”

After the incident? So does that mean something much more serious happened before the cameras started rolling? Apparently, this seems to be the case. It seems that all we can gather from this new development is that, while it’s easy to jump to conclusions at the first sight of “evidence,” sometimes it doesn’t tell the whole story. Such as the case is here. As it doesn’t show what Filipe actually did wrong.