By Filipe Toledo's own standards it was a regulation air reverse. Yeah, he went into it with a wild amount of speed and the spin was equally fast, yet he's landed thousands of similar moves. What was different this time was the mistimed impact with the whitewater and what happened immediately afterward.

To the spectator it was clear something was wrong; rather than haul his board in Toledo floated aimlessly for a while, a slight grimace on his face. To his credit he surfed the rest of the heat, even chalked a 7-something ride but it was obvious he was in a whole lot of discomfort. When the hooter went it was off to the physio for the prognosis.

“When I was landing the wave came up under the board,” Toledo said on the webcast. “All the pressure made my leg go up and sideways. I’m just feeling a lot of pain. I tweaked all my groin.”

And through a grim-faced smile he joked: "I’m not dying at all." 

Yesterday afternoon Toledo released a video statement about his immediate plans. "I’m not doing Bells, and I don’t think I’m doing Margaret’s. I’m going to head home and do some physio, get ready for Rio.”

At the end of each year CT surfers discard their worst two results to tally their final rankings. Toledo appears likely to use up those two results meaning the pressure will be upon him to make every subsequent result count.

The other thing to note is what effect this might have on Toledo's approach to surfing. During Snapper it was noted by commentators that he'd eased up on airs during heats in favour of a more rail-centric approach. With a serious injury due to a mistimed air will Toledo hold back even more in the future?

Toledo's place will be taken by injury wildcard, Sebastian Zietz.