Back in June of 2018, Filipe Toledo pulled an absolutely ridiculous aerial at the Oi Rio Pro.  He received a perfect 10 for the wave and went on to win the event.

During the broadcast, one of the announcers exclaimed that Filipe must have cleared 15 feet.  I’m a forensic biomechanist so I get all excited at the thought of some numbers and measurables in surfing.  I couldn’t help but try and add some objectivity to the feat, so I did some rough analysis using photogrammetry and projectile motion calculations, and came up with some quantities and comparisons.

What initially stands out is the speed he is moving as he cruises down the wave before launching.  The intent is obvious, some kind of flight is coming!  By the time he takes off he is going over 20 mph (~32 km/h), or about 30 ft/s. Not very fast in a car, but to a fully exposed human attempting to get along with mother nature, the slightest false move at those speeds is not going to end well.  These guys make gnarly falls look trivial, but that’s because they know howto fall.  Most of us would be mangled, that’s all that is to it.  Consider this, studies on the survivability of falls into water (i.e. from bridges, usually with lethal intent), suggest around 80 mph as the upper limit.  I won’t get into the specifics of those fatal injuries as it gets a bit graphic for this article.  But, its worth noting that recreational stunt divers routinely reach speeds of 60 mph, or nearly three times what Filipe was doing.  So, he is at about 25% of what is considered survivable, and about 33% of what stunt divers achieve without severe injury.  That’s good to know, right?

That speed combined with his launch angle enabled him to get about 5 to 6 feet about the lip of the wave.  That number doesn’t fully describe what he felt though.  Notice that he lands at the base of the wave whereas he took off near the top of it. Taking that into account, his overall fall distance was in the range of 10 to 11 ft, or just over the height of a basketball rim.  Hopefully it goes without saying, but that is not a reasonable distance to fall.  Filipe makes it look easy partly because the water provides him some cushion, but more so because of his flexibility.  If you watch closely he basically sits on his heels.  That actually hurts my knees just to think about.  As Filipe lands his right knee is at the extreme limit of flexion, twisted a bit, and supporting much of his body weight before he springs back into a standing position.  Ever wonder how to tear a meniscus, or an ACL, how about both? Well, that’s how!

Overall, I think what stood out to me the most about this aerial was the distance that he travelled as it seemed like he was in the air forever.  Awhile back I put some numbers to that aerial John John did at Bell’s last year.  I really don’t want to make too many comparisons, as its important to recognize that these are different maneuvers, performed on different waves, in VERY different conditions. That said, for fun, let’s go ahead and compare apples to oranges:

Filipe was in the air for almost 30 ft.  That’s twice the initial estimate, and about the length of a stretch limo! It was also about 50% greater than the distance travelled by JJF during his aerial, which was nearer to 20 ft.  Their speeds were comparable but JJF’s launch angle was steeper, so he went a bit higher, but didn’t travel as far.

Filipe spun about 405 degrees in roughly 1.2 seconds.  That’s one complete rotation, and then some.  Not quite a 540 (as announced at the time), that’s one and half complete turns.  JJF completed 3/4 of a rotation or about 270 degrees in a little more time. So, Filipe spun about 35% more than JJF, in less time.