Filipe Toledo backed his Championship Tour return with the highest single-wave score of the Corona Cero New Zealand Pro to date, the Brazilian leaning on an unconventional fin setup to find the right blend of speed and release on Manu Bay's long left-hand wall.
Toledo's tweak — abandoning his usual symmetric thruster configuration for a quad-style cluster with a smaller trailing fin — turned heads in the parking lot before his Round 1 heat. By the time he had ridden two waves, the experiment looked vindicated, with the two-time world champion drawing out the open-face carves Raglan rewards and finishing one ride with the kind of vertical re-entry that has been his on-tour signature.
The Inertia, which broke the fin-setup detail, characterised the move as part of a broader rebuild Toledo has undertaken since his Championship Tour return. The Brazilian had stepped away from the full schedule and returned to selected events with a clear emphasis on equipment experimentation, working with a small group of shapers in Brazil and California to dial in boards that suit the new wave pool generation as much as the natural canvases of Raglan or Pipeline.
The quad-with-trailer setup gives a board more drive through flatter sections — exactly what Manu Bay demands — while preserving release in the pocket for vertical surfing. The trade-off is typically a fractionally looser feel off the bottom, and Toledo's first wave showed him taking a beat to settle into the feel before committing on the second.
For the field, Toledo's score sets the bar in a heat draw where most surfers have been clipping eight-point waves at best. The Brazilian's ceiling on a long Raglan wall is significant: this is the kind of wave that allows him to chain three or four manoeuvres without the wave running out of energy.
Beyond the score, the equipment story is the more interesting one. Surfers on the Championship Tour have grown increasingly willing to experiment with fin clusters wave-by-wave, with the new generation of FCS and Futures templates allowing rapid swaps in the dressing room. Toledo, who built his reputation on aerial surfing, has been one of the more conservative riders on board layout in recent years, making the Raglan switch all the more notable.
The Corona Cero New Zealand Pro runs through May 25 with Toledo's Round 2 progression now setting up a meeting with either Italo Ferreira or another seed in the back half of the draw. The Brazilian has not won a CT event since his second world title campaign, and Raglan, with its drawn-out lefts and unhurried tempo, has been mooted as a wave that could deliver him a first comeback victory.
The broader tour storyline is also tilting in his favour. With Gabriel Medina, John John Florence and other established names trading wins through the early-season swings, the 2026 men's tour title race is unusually open — and a Toledo run to the final at Raglan would put another name into a crowded mid-season picture.
