Brazilian Longboarder Chloe Calmon Decides To Take Full Year Off Competition

Chloe Calmon is known as one of the toughest competitors on the Longboard World Tour. Over the last 14 years, the super-smooth Brazilian goofy-footer has finished near to the top of the rankings consistently, coming close over multiple years to nabbing that elusive World Title. As the longboard tour prepares to kick off in just a few weeks, Chloe’s name will be conspicuously missing from the roster. She recently shared publicly that she has made the tough decision to take this year off.

“At the end of last year I was exhausted emotionally and physically,” Chloe says. “Every event I'm there to win, so if I get second place or last place for me it sucks either way. I was being really hard on myself and all this pressure that I was absorbing, it was not external pressure, it was just internal pressure. I'm my own worst enemy at the end of the day.

“After the season I felt like I really needed some time to breathe and relax and I ended up going three months without surfing. I was going to the beach every day but I could not touch a surfboard, I could not think about surfing or see a clip or anything related to surfing,” Chloe explains.

“Around New Year's Eve my dad had some friends come over to his place and I was hearing them talk, they've been surf buddies since they were 18 and now they're almost 70. They were just so stoked talking about surfing in general, they were saying to each other ‘you should see my new board,’ ‘Chloe went to Bells last year, remember that movie that we grew up watching perfect Bells together…’ That passion for surfing has been the same for the past 50 years, so hearing that made me super inspired but I wasn't feeling the same way as them. I felt that the way that I was moving with surfing, if I kept on the same path I was walking for the past couple of years, probably I would quit surfing. Seeing them talking about surfing like teenage boys, just so happy about it, I was like okay, this is what I want for my life.” Chloe says.

This year we have seen the conversation about mental health for elite athletes that has started over the last few years in other sports finally make its way into surfing. Filipe Toledo announced at the start of the year that he was taking a break for his mental health and Steph Gilmore made a similar announcement ahead of the 2024 surf season.

Related: Breaking News: Filipe Toledo Withdraws from 2024 Championship Tour

“That was just the biggest encouragement for me because I look up to them a lot,” Chloe says about the announcements. “Especially Steph, she's my biggest idol in surfing and when I saw her with the urge to take a break and find inspiration in her surfing again, to me it was like ‘If the big girls can do it.’ So, I allowed myself to feel the same way and I allowed myself to take a break. And it has been the best decision ever, I've never felt so happy with my surfing, and so light.”

For the first half of the year, Chloe has been going on surf trips just to surf for the first time in a long time. The reality of competitive surfing can be that despite so much travel to surf spots, rarely is a trip somewhere just purely to surf. It’s to compete and shoot and not often about just getting out there and having fun. In longboarding, it often means taking out your log in waves you probably wouldn’t even ride a longboard in if you were given the option. Taking a break has meant Chloe has had a chance to ride different boards, free from any judging criteria, traveling light without her double longboard bag.

“When you’re competing, you have to surf how the judges want you to perform and I feel that it got to a point that I was really limiting my surfing, especially with all the events being on right-handers,” Chloe says. “This year I'm just putting in the time surfing lefts. If it's a left I'm definitely going, I'm not even looking at the right.

“I went to Indo for the first time and I brought a twin fin 7’2”, which is a mini glider from Brazil with the wide point further up so it gets so much speed and you can also try to cross step. It was just so fun to surf Uluwatu, Lombok and Padang and all these waves and also just so easy to put it on the scooter and drive around not to worry about the hassle of bringing your longboard.

“I don't remember the last 100% surf trip I went on before Bali this year; it's all been about competing or training or shooting for a sponsor, to just go to a place and be surfed out, surf until your arms can’t bend just for the pure aspect of surfing [has been great],” Chloe says.

Related: Chloe Calmon and Kaniela Stewart Win Duct Tape Invitational in Portugal

The Longboard World Tour has grown in recent years, with new events at world-class locations alongside existing smaller tours, ISA Worlds and the numerous logging invitationals that mean, for a lot of surfers, it’s coming home for a few days, repacking and heading back out. Chloe has been on tour, in its different iterations, since she was 15, living out of a suitcase.

“I've been on this path of self-discovery and learning more about what Chloe likes, just relearning the real meaning of surfing in my life and embracing the lifestyle, the joy and the connection with the ocean," she says. “I want to put the jersey back on, but I’m only gonna be back when I feel 100% on it.”