Filipe Toledo has a beef with Tracks. I don’t know why or how it started but he has blocked us on Instagram. Insta’ is the preferred medium for modern pro surfers to provide a gateway into their lives – usually via a carefully curated image that appeals to their fan base. I suspect that in certain instances it may in fact be team mangers or marketing reps who are responsible for the posts. It’s also a great source of news fodder for a surf hack and many breaking stories can be traced back to one upload or comment feed.

When I innocently searched for the current world number two to see if he had been training for Pipeline I was surprised to discover he had, “No posts yet”. For those unfamiliar with the app this is a kind why of saying you’ve been barred from my feed.

I remembered that our resident cartoonist, Johannes Leak, has a weekly column aptly titled The Friday Heckle – where anyone and anything is fair game. Maybe he had portrayed Filipe in an unflattering manner in one of his caricatures? When I told Johannes the news he was surprised to learn he had met the same fate.

“Haha wow. He blocked me too hahahahahahahahaha.”

If Filipe blocks us on Instagram that’s completely his call. However, if you surf on the WSL where you can generate a huge profile and earn big money then you should expect some closer scrutiny – this is par for the course in all other high profile sports. Most of us are true believers in awe of our surfing heroes, however sometimes it’s fun to take the power back a little in a way that perhaps mocks our own sycophantic tendencies.

If you can’t laugh at yourself you might be missing out on the best joke in the world.