Filipe Toledo and Stephanie Gilmore won the Rip Curl World Surf League Finals on Thursday at Lower Trestles in San Clemente, but the similarities of their crowning achievements end there.

For Brazil’s Toledo, 27, the men’s world title was his first but wasn’t unexpected considering he was the No. 1 seed.

For Australia’s Gilmore, 34, the women’s world title was her eighth, the most by a woman in pro surfing history (surpassing Layne Beachley’s seven). But it seemingly came out of nowhere, since she arrived as the No. 5 seed.

Toledo beat fellow Brazilian Italo Ferreira in two consecutive heats after Ferreira had to climb his way up as the No. 4 seed.

Ferreira was spectacular in beating Huntington Beach local and No. 5 seed Kanoa Igarashi, No. 3 seed Ethan Ewing of Australia and No. 2 seed Jack Robinson of Australia to reach the best-of-three finals matchup with Toledo.

But Ferreira seemed to run out of gas after relying on his air game early in the day, and Toledo was obviously fresh and ready to go. Toledo won the first heat 15.13-14.97, then won the second heat 16.50-14.93.

“Being No. 1 it’s a good advantage, I was sitting at home watching and cruising and having fun with my kids and family,” Toledo said. “Preparing myself and preparing my mind. Finally got to surf the first heat and felt really good.”

Toledo joins the club that includes Gabriel Medina, Ferreira and Adriano de Souza as Brazilian world champions. The quartet has combined to win six of the last eight men’s world championships.

“It’s a feeling that obviously I’ve never felt before,” Toledo said. “It’s just the relief, all the hard work of nine years (on the Championship Tour) of sacrificing a lot, my family — you know how hard it is to leave your kid behind. For this moment, for my family, to see the spark in everybody’s eyes, there’s no price.”

Gilmore had to work her way up as the No. 5 seed, surfing the first heat of the day at 8 a.m. and falling behind quickly to No. 4 seed Brisa Hennessy of Costa Rica.

Gilmore, though, rallied to beat Hennessy, beat No. 3 Tatiana Weston-Webb of Brazil and No. 2 Johanne Defay of France before going up against No. 1 seed Carissa Moore of Hawaii.

Moore, the two-time defending world champion, a five-time world champion overall and the Olympic gold medalist, was the favorite but was unable to slow down the momentum Gilmore had built up throughout the day.

Gilmore won both heats against Moore, 15.00-10.90 and 15.23-11.97.

“To be honest, I disliked this format,” Gilmore said. “I thought the world champion should be crowned in all the different waves over the entire period of the year. And now I love it. That’s the beauty of it. I’ve never won a world title sitting in the water against the world No. 1. There really are no words to describe this feeling right now.”

For Huntington’s Igarashi, the quest for a world title ended early when he lost the first men’s heat of the morning to Ferreira, 13.37-11.83.

The heat was a rematch of the Olympic gold medal matchup last year in Japan when Ferreira came out on top. Ferreira essentially won the heat Thursday with one spectacular maneuver, a huge full rotation air reverse that was scored an 8.17.

That score left Igarashi needing a 5.68, but when Ferreira improved his backup score without priority, Igarashi was left needing a 6.55 with just four minutes remaining.

With 2:30 to go, Igarashi got a wave that just didn’t provide the push he needed, and Igarashi pulled out of the wave and never got another. That left Ferreira in position to win and eventually get all the way to the final.

“It was just one of those things where it was a rhythm thing, and he had more rhythm than me,” said Igarashi, who finished the season ranked No. 5 in the world. “The ocean got me today. There’s gonna be a couple heats today where the ocean decides the winner and that’s just the way it is. I wish I had a fighting chance at the end but the ocean didn’t give me that option today, so it’s one of those things where I’m grateful to be surfing and be healthy and be home.”

There were some tense moments early in the heat when Igarashi and Ferreira bumped into each other paddling for a wave, and when Igarashi took the wave, he immediately went down.

“His hand got stuck in my leash, his hand or maybe his board, I didn’t see, I wasn’t looking back,” Igarashi said. “His hand got stuck in my leash and made me kind of go over the handlebars. So it was unfortunate, yeah, there’s a couple question marks but it’s just competition. It got a little bit physical in the beginning but we were able to clean it up toward the end and have a good heat.”

Ferreira and the Brazilians are known for their aggressive approach in the water, so Igarashi said it wasn’t unexpected.

“There was some strategy involved there, so it was one of those things where I control what I can control,” he said. “All our heats are like, hey, let’s go toe to toe here. It’s a lot less strategy than I would have in a lot of other heats, which is really fun for me, that’s why I enjoy competing against Italo.”

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