Filipe Toledo, watching on as the Sunset Pro got going. Photo: Brent Bielmann//World Surf League
Filipe Toledo just joined a notable list of surfers and world champions who stepped away from the world tour while sitting at the top of the game. Kelly Slater, Gabriel Medina, Tyler Wright, Occy, Andy Irons, and of course, Carissa Moore and Steph Gilmore are just a handful of names in that camp. The list is even longer if we were to take a real deep dive and they all had their own reasons for needing a breather. Occy struggled with alcohol at a young age. Tyler Wright had severe health challenges to address. Slater’s late-90s “retirement” was easily the most groundbreaking at the time, leaving for three years after winning five consecutive world titles.
“I’d accomplished more than I expected to,” Slater said when he came back in 2002, ready to reel off five more world titles. “But at that point I didn’t know really what to do with myself. I didn’t have any goals beyond that. Surfing didn’t excite me the way it had when I started.”
One constant in all those sabbaticals has been prioritizing health, both physical and mental. The difference today, however, seems to be that we have athletes who directly and openly talk about the mental health aspect of their lives and careers. Filipe Toledo hasn’t been shy about his own experience. His battles with depression were highlighted in the WSL’s first season of Make or Break and Senior Editor Joe Carberry had a conversation with Toledo about the same subject during last year’s CT stop at the Surf Ranch.
“The more I can talk about it, the more I can help people out, the happier I’m going to be,” he told The Inertia. “It was during 2019. That’s when I started seeking help. My wife was big in helping me out (at first). Then it got to the point where it was too much, and she couldn’t help me and I had to look for help. I did. And it’s been pretty good.”
And when Toledo announced he’d be taking the rest of this season off he pointed to needing that same focus on his mental health, saying that competing has “taken a toll” over the past decade. On Saturday, while Gabriel Medina, Eli Hanneman, and Matthew McGillivray were in the water for their Opening Round heat of the Hurley Pro Sunset Beach, Toledo joined the WSL broadcast team to talk more about his state of mind and the decision to step away.
“It was a hard decision for me. It took me a few days to realize this is actually happening,” he admitted. “But I was just giving priority to myself, like ‘I don’t want to but I need to. It’s hard for me to not surf, not compete. But I know I need the break. I have to reset, just live one year pressure free and be home for the kids, for family, and go on surf trips.”
He also went on to say that the professional surfing community has been overwhelmingly positive in its support since his announcement, from Parko to Mick Fanning and other friends on tour reaching out to show their love.
“I wasn’t ready for so many good, supportive comments. I was kind of scared. But at the end of the day I was just like, ‘This is for me. This is my decision. I’ll just do it.’ And after the announcement, everyone was super supportive.”
