World Champion Italo Ferreira has been left fuming, stamping on – and breaking – his surfboard after he lost a tense heat to American Conner Coffin and was knocked out of the Narrabeen Classic on Monday.
In a stunning upset result, Ferreira was pipped by Coffin on the last wave of the heat, with Coffin scoring a 5.80 on his final move to go with his second-best score of 5.67.
Ferreira’s top two scores were 5.67 and 5.00 – but surfing pundits believed he was stiff not to get a higher score.
Broadcast commentators believed the Brazilian was unlucky not to receive higher scores from his efforts on two waves.
“I think Italo was hard done by on that last score,” former pro surfer Luke Egan told Fox Sports. “I thought mid-six, maybe seven.
“That second turn was so tight and so crucial, I think the judges missed that a little bit. I think it should’ve been a little bit more and that’s something different. We don’t see that all the time from Italo. That was a power hack like what you see ‘Occy’ (Mark Occhilupo) do.
“I was very impressed with that turn and I think that score should’ve been a little bit more.”
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Ferreira threw down the gauntlet with just minutes remaining in the heat, pulling out a big backside rotator. However some judges deemed the move was incomplete, even though Ferreira and commentator Wayne ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew thought it was complete
“Radical, radical call here,” Bartholomew told Fox Sports.
“Complete or incomplete? They’ve just said no and it’s a 1.77.
“Italo was going ‘I landed on the flats’. To me, I watch this and I think it’s complete.
“It’s a pretty cruel score, 1.77 as opposed to an 8.5.”
After seeing Coffin’s 5.80 score come through, Ferreira headed into the athletes zone and jumped on his board while screaming.
Speaking after the heat, Coffin said: “I’m in shock. What a heat. It was such a weird heat.”
Ferreira is different to the regular surfer on the WSL.
He gets up early. Really early.
When others are enjoying their first flat white, Ferreira is already making the ocean his playground.
He does tricks others only dream of.
On Sunday, he took care of Australian fan favourite and former world champion Mick Fanning.
Fanning came out of retirement for the event.
Call it old age but even Fanning was inspired to get aerial.
“It was fun,” Fanning said. “I enjoyed the process of it all. I thought oh stuff it, I’ll try to do my first ever air.”
For the past week the Brazilian has been splashing around Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
He might not have progressed as far as he would have liked. But he certainly made a big impression on those insomniacs watching on.