Australian rookie surfer Wade Carmichael goes close to beating defending champion Filipe Toledo in J-Bay final
UPDATED: A former rugby playing world tour rookie from the NSW Central Coast has come within a few points of causing the biggest boilover in world surfing at the J-Bay Open.
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UPDATED: A former rugby playing, odd jobs man who has battled for years to crack the world tour has almost pulled off the biggest upset in world surfing at one of its best venues.
And Avoca’s World Tour rookie Wade Carmichael, who finished runner up to world champion favourite Filipe Toledo at the J-Bay Open, says his plan is to just keep on having a crack at the best in the world as he jumped eight places to No. 6 on the world rankings.
“I guess I just feel relaxed and some of the others don’t,” he said of beating some of the biggest names in the sport to make two finals in his debut year on tour.
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“I had no expectation but my results are being good. I’m just feeling comfortable.”
Carmichael fell just short of a major upset when beaten 16.80 to 15.33 by new world No. 1 Toledo in a rematch of their Rio final.
In a thrilling final, Carmichael caught a wave in the dying seconds of the final but could not amass the total required to overhaul a red-hot Toledo who has a perfect record of seven wins from his seven world title finals appearances.
“Back to back wins is something I could only have dreamt of, “ Toledo said.
Carmichael made his second final this year after beating local favourite Jordy Smith in their semi-final in South Africa late on Thursday.
Smith had earlier knocked Australian Julian Wilson, who went to J-Bay at the top of the world rankings, out of the competition in the quarter-finals.
This year’s J-Open marked the return - albeit briefly - of Kelly Slater to the world tour after a year out injured.
It was also the venue chosen by former J-Bay winner Joel Parkinson to announce he will retire from the world tour after the final event at Pipeline in December.
Slater bowed out of the competition in the second round while Parkinson advanced to the fourth.
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