{"id":460571,"date":"2026-06-04T12:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/460571\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T12:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:06:11","slug":"a-learner-surfer-mightve-spelled-an-early-end-to-italos-el-salvador-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/460571\/","title":{"rendered":"A Learner Surfer Might\u2019ve Spelled An Early End To Italo\u2019s El Salvador Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

El Salvador is already heating up, and the event hasn\u2019t even started.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the facts before we start smearing speculation across the walls.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, June 3, Italo Ferreira was run over by a novice surfer at Sunzal Beach (2.7 km from Punta Roca) and received eight stitches in his right knee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to our sources, world number one was in the water with his wife, Sofia Larocca, when a beginner longboarder took an ill-advised line and half-amputated the Olympic gold medalist\u2019s leading leg.<\/p>\n

Source: Miguel Angel Veliz Jr\/Facebook<\/p>\n

According to the Wozzle:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe athlete was promptly attended to by a local medical team, underwent the necessary procedures, and is doing well. Italo is currently medicated, pain-free, and continues to be monitored by the medical staff accompanying him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words: Italo has not officially withdrawn from the event. But a knee injury requiring sutures, two days out from a CT expected to run in solid swell?\u00a0A stitch-up, if you will.<\/p>\n

Now for more non-fiction.<\/p>\n

There is currently a mystery wildcard seeded into the first round of the men\u2019s draw against South Africa\u2019s Luke Thompson. That wildcard is not local invite Bryan Perez. It is also not Jordy Smith\u2019s injury replacement, Matt McGillivray.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to the fun part.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conspiracy!<\/p>\n

In the four-year history of CTs in El Salvador, only four men have ever hoisted the Surf City trophy: Filipe Toledo, Griffin Colapinto, Jordy Smith, and John Florence.<\/p>\n

The last name on that list had plans to cross from the Caribbean through the Panama Canal, according to his recent StabMic ep<\/a>. That could put him around Central America\u2019s Pacific Coast at this very moment. <\/p>\n

In JJF\u2019s latest Instagram post \u2014 a powerful flex and pertinent reminder that the world\u2019s best surfer is currently living on a boat, rinsing off sea legs with boned-out straighties on empty pointbreaks \u2014 the comments section quickly filled with amateur geocachers trying to triangulate his whereabouts.<\/p>\n

Then Filipe Toledo dropped this:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEl Sal ! Getting the wildcard yeah ? Hahaha good stuff bro\u201d<\/p>\n

A sentence, probably a tongue in cheek remark, that activated our wishful thinking faculties. <\/p>\n

Sadly, they\u2019ve been hosed down by his boat\u2019s GPS, has him anchored in Panama still\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, sailing from the Pacific side of Panama \u2014 Balboa \u2014 to El Salvador is roughly 600 to 800 nautical miles, depending on the route and stops. For a typical cruising sailboat moving at 5\u20136 knots, that\u2019s about five to eight days of continuous sailing.<\/p>\n

If you were already sailing past an event you\u2019ve won before, and the WSL suddenly had a mystery wildcard slot open, would you not at least consider hopping off the boat and giving them a free lesson?<\/p>\n

One can only hope. Though at this point, it\u2019s looking next-to-nil, unless he switches his mode of transport.<\/p>\n

As for our unannounced mystery surfer\u2026 Russell Winter? Tab Textor?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"El Salvador is already heating up, and the event hasn\u2019t even started. Let\u2019s start with the facts before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[122274,233655,111,139,69,213,2557],"class_list":["post-460571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-el-salvador","tag-italo-ferreira","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports","tag-wsl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}