Why three champions with 15 world titles have walked out on surfing’s pro tour

There’s a well-worn piece of wisdom on the pro-surfing circuit: the year you win a title often ends up the most draining of your life.

In the past 24 days, world champions Filipe Toledo, Stephanie Gilmore and Carissa Moore have walked away, taking no less than 15 world titles with them.

For all the glamour of being paid to travel the world, surfing five-star waves with one other person in the line-up before an audience of millions, the tour can be tough.

The addition of extra Olympics-centred qualifying events now amounts to all but eight weeks living out of a suitcase for elite surfers. Gilmore, now 36 with a record eight world titles, has done the dance for 17 years.

Moore, a five-time champion, reigning Olympic gold medallist and a living treasure in Hawaii, has 13 years under her belt.

Neither decision to walk away – Moore planning to start a family after her Olympic title defence at Teahupo’o, Tahiti in July, Gilmore for a 12-month sabbatical – came out of the blue.

Toledo, on the other hand, shocked plenty. The Brazilian, long regarded as one of the best aerial and small wave surfers to grace the tour, announced on Monday that he was withdrawing from his title defence for the benefit of his mental health.

It comes after fierce backlash to his recent efforts at Pipeline, in which he caught just two waves for a combined score of 1.77 in heaving conditions, before withdrawing from the event citing a bout of food poisoning.

As reported by this masthead, it played into a long-held narrative around Toledo’s performances in big waves.

Enduring longer still, though, has been the 28-year-old’s own openness around his mental battles, regularly detailing a 2019 breakdown as self-imposed pressure and criticism became too much.

“I feel like I do need to take this break, I need to take care of myself, take care of my family,” Toledo said on Monday.

“I need to reconnect with surfing in a way that there’s no contest, there’s no timing, no nothing – just a time for me to go out there and surf and really enjoy every little bit of it.

“I actually decided before paddling out to my heat at Pipe. I felt that I was not connected, I felt I was so overwhelmed knowing that the year’s so long and I’ve been doing this for the last 11 years as a CT (championship tour) surfer.

“I got to cry a lot for the last few days (while) really understanding what’s going on. But I’m happy.”

Stephanie Gilmore, Filipe Toledo and Carissa Moore – three of surfing’s world champions have walked away in the past 24 days.

It is unclear at this point whether Toledo plans to contest the Olympics at Teahupo’o – a wave he freely admits scares him.

Like Toledo, Gilmore plans to “chase swells and free surf in new places”, before returning to full-time competition in 2025.

Moore refuses to use the word retirement, though that’s certainly the sense.

It’s not unheard of, the best surfers on the planet taking a step back, and the WSL has a rule built into its qualifying structure to cater to exactly that.

A reigning world champion can sit out the following year’s competition, and return to the Championship Tour with a wildcard, avoiding the usual gruelling qualifying journey through the second-tier Challenger Series.

This is the path back to competition for Gilmore and Toledo. Meantime, the show goes on, as Pipeline’s historic finals day on Sunday made emphatically plain.

The WSL’s first event of the season began under a cloud of Gilmore and Moore’s departure, even with the Hawaiian making one last appearance at her favourite break.

The Pipeline Pro ended with what Gilmore herself dubbed “a pivotal day for women’s surfing” as Molly Picklum (21), Caity Simmers and Bettylou Johnson (both 18) turned in some of the best competitive surfing ever seen from the girls.

It feels like one era is ending – or maybe just taking a 12-month break. But another looks to be banging down the door.

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