It wasn’t all that long ago Italo Ferreira was nearly unstoppable. From the start of the 2018 CT season through the 2021 (re: 2020) Tokyo Olympics, Ferreira secured seven tour wins, two WSL Finals appearances, an Olympic gold medal, and one world title. Just making Team Brazil for the summer games alone was a monumental feat. Italo joined Gabriel Medina, leaving Filipe Toledo as the odd Brazilian out after a stacked race for Olympic qualification. Italo did make a run from the four seed on Finals Day in 2022 before eventually running into Filipe Toledo in the best-of-three championship matchup, but like I said, it wasn’t that long ago that Italo was unstoppable.
Fast forward to this year and halfway through the season, Italo was on the bubble of the mid-year cut. And in another Olympic qualification year, he’s currently behind five of his countrymen in the CT rankings. That’s a testament to how deep the Brazilian Storm actually runs. But it’s also a reminder that the results have seemed elusive since Italo Ferreira was king of the surfing mountain.
After securing his place above the cut line with a Round of 16 exit at the Margaret River Pro this past week, the former world champ apparently hopped right on a flight to Bali where he’s doing exactly what he always does: running at 100 miles per hour. As you can see he’s getting his reps in on small, rippable waves, not out chasing rhinos in the Indian Ocean. Considering he has a full four weeks before heading to California for the first post-cut comp of the year in Lemoore, perhaps the guy is treating this trip like training for the Surf Ranch.
