John John Florence keeps us guessing

JOHN JOHN FLORENCE might be every surfer’s favourite surfer. With his clean, fluid style and ability to prevail in all conditions – whether the waves are two feet high or 20 – Florence is arguably the best surfer of his generation. Kelly Slater respects him. Gabriel Medina wants to beat him. Groms everywhere aspire to be him.

A quintessential prodigy, Florence first surfed his home break of Pipeline when he was five. At 13, he became the youngest person ever to enter the prestigious Triple Crown of Surfing and turned pro when he was just 17. He had his first win on the WSL Championship Tour at 21, claimed Hawaii’s Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational – aka the Super Bowl of surfing – when he was 23, and won his first world title in 2016, aged 24, backing it up with a second in 2017.

But his next few seasons were derailed by injury, prompting surf commentators – and Florence himself – to question whether he’d get the chance to fulfil his God-given potential. Then, in September 2024, he proved those commentators – and his old demons – wrong by beating Brazil’s Ítalo Ferreira to claim his third world title, a feat only a handful of surfers through history have achieved.

In January, Florence announced that he would take a step back from the Championship Tour in 2025, “to focus on surfing in a different way this year.” On Instagram, he wrote: “I want to create the time to explore, find new waves, and draw different lines. I intend to compete full on for another world title in 2026, but right now this idea of adventure and creatively pushing my surfing as far as possible is really exciting.” Then, less than a week after announcing his hiatus, Florence was given a local wildcard into the 2025 Lexus Pipe Pro – hardly surprising, given his history with the break and how many viewers he brings to the competition.

The question now is: will he retire at the top – or return to the tour in 2026 to chase a fourth title? Late last year, we caught up with Florence to ask him this and more.

ESQUIRE: 2024 was your most consistent year on tour – you spent almost the entire season on top of the leaderboard. Coming into the season, what was your approach?

JOHN JOHN FLORENCE: I try to approach my heats like I free surf. I think in 2023, I hit a low point within myself. I was kind of half-in, half-out, and that’s a really hard place to be. When I realised I wasn’t going to make the finals, I was like, I’m gonna finish the year off, and I’m gonna have fun and just enjoy it. And for the last few events, I really started having a good time. I remembered why I liked the tour and the process of competing. So, coming into this year, I was like, I’m going to fully commit, but I’m going to be relaxed and enjoy it at the same time. I think that’s when I surf my best.

It must be hard to relax, though, when ultimately, you want to win?

It is hard, because the heats go for 30 minutes, and your mind starts playing games. But I [feel] it in my shoulders. When my shoulders are able to relax and I’m able to joke around and laugh and not sit there frozen . . . my instincts just take over.

You’ve been a pro surfer for 13 years now. How has your style of surfing changed over time?

I think my style of surfing has changed quite a bit. When I first started the tour, I would go as fast as I could down the line and then try one really big manoeuvre. Over the years, I’ve been refining the moments between taking off and that big manoeuvre, making my waves flow together better. Because before, it was really fifty-fifty. I’d either have a really good heat, or a really, really bad heat.

You’re 31. But do you feel like a veteran?

Yeah, it’s so weird [laughs]. Because I feel really young – I still feel like I did when I got on the tour, but pretty much everyone that was on tour when I started is gone, except for Kelly. It has been a hard one for me. I think last year my mind was really playing into that, questioning, Am I old? How am I one of the oldest guys on the tour? And after all the injuries, Can I still do this? But there’s a whole new group of guys now. Sometimes they ask me questions like, ‘So, what was it like back then?’ And I’m like, I’m not that old!

What excites you about the new generation of surfers?

Everyone takes it really seriously now, trying to get every advantage they can to win. I feel like it’s really levelled the playing field. That’s what I see in the next generation – everyone is taking it more seriously. It’s more of a job, not a vacation. Whereas when I started on the tour, there were maybe a handful of guys that were serious about winning, and a handful that wanted to have fun.

At the Paris Olympics, you represented Team USA in surfing – your second time doing so after competing at Tokyo 2020. What kind of impact did the 2024 Olympics have on the sport?

I think it really put surfing on another level. The waves were big – it was as good as Teahupo’o [in Tahiti] can get in some of those heats. I mean, I bet every single surfer was a little nervous. But for that [huge swell] to happen on the world stage . . . I think that was probably the best thing that could have happened for surfing. I think that was what helped me through going down so early. [Florence was beaten by Australia’s Jack Robinson in the round of 16].

Are you someone who holds onto his losses?

No, I’m definitely past that now. I mean, there’s probably like two or three days of thinking about it and replaying it in your mind. But then you just move past it.

Do you ever get scared?

Always. I’m always scared. I mean, it’s the ocean and it’s unpredictable. I feel like if you’re not scared, maybe you need to be a little bit scared. Being scared is respecting the ocean.

In the past, you’ve said that parts of your personality aren’t suited to competing. What parts?

I think I would change that. I’d say that parts of my personality aren’t super-suited to the stuff that happens around the competitions. I feel like I’m pretty introverted and I like spending time by myself, which can be tough when you’re on tour and everyone is hanging out. So, I’ve been working on going off and having my own time and having more one-on-one time with people. That’s been my focus this year – being more myself in and around the events.

There were rumours of your retirement circling earlier this year. How much longer do you think you’ll be competing?

I think about that all the time. I could definitely just stop next year and not come back and probably be totally happy [laughs]. I have so many things in my life that I love to do, that I don’t always have time for. But I also love competing. So . . . I don’t know. I could do it for another five or six years. I could see myself taking next year off and then coming back after that. But this year has been a good example of what I can do when I’m in the right mind frame and I’m having fun. It’s made me think, Oh, I could definitely do this for a lot longer than I maybe thought.

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