John John Florence: Profile of a Champion
Fresh from his side quest at the Olympics, Oahu’s hero is back at the top
When John Alexander Florence viciously cut back on one of the only half-a-dozen waves he caught on WSL Finals day, sending a spray of Californian surf skywards, the fins of his board roaring out of the water like the teeth in a shark’s jaw, I wonder if he knew in that moment that he’d secured his third world title. It drew gasps and cheers from the onlooking crowds gathered on the beach in sunny San Clemente and got me up off of my sofa watching here in the UK as the rainy night closed in.
‘JJF’ - my favourite professional surfer and pretty widely regarded for some time now as the best since the best ever (Kelly Slater, for those not native to the world of top-level surfing) - had dropped his signature layback move with such ferociousness that the judges granted him a score of 9.7 out of 10. Next thing I know, he’s being carried up the beach on shoulders, the familiar flag of Hawaii draped around his own. Legend status secured.
I love those goosebumps-inducing moments in sport. When, as a fan, you want something so badly for yourself as a supporter, sure, but more importantly you want it for the participant, too, as a person. Something about surfing, much more than other sports, in my opinion, allows you to get a glimpse of the real individual. These aren’t outwardly showy multi-millionaires in Lambos dripped out in the latest fashion, performing in stadiums and arenas in front of thousands; they’re ocean-lovers, responding to a call from nature’s ultimate wonder to offer up the most their human spirit can muster, becoming one with the sea and at the same time taking it on.
At least that’s how John John comes across. For me, the best thing about him isn’t his smooth lines or hunched aggression on a wave. It’s that he is the epitome of the Waterman; his is a total respect, admiration and love for blue juice. He foils, he surfs, he swims, he sails - whatever it takes to get him in touch with the amazing Jekkyl and Hyde-esque waters of the Pacific Ocean that surround his special home and place of upbringing, the north shore of Oahu, otherwise known as the Seven Mile Miracle.
On top of all of that you get the impression that family - ‘Ohana, in Hawaiian - means more to him than anything else, certainly including world titles. His closeness with his two brothers - Ivan and Nathan, the latter himself a big deal in the world of big wave surfing and another one of my idols - over the years has recently culminated in them joining him as ambassadors of his relatively recently-formed but rapidly-growing equipment and gear brand Florence Marine X. It just feels right. And feel seems to be at the heart of everything Florence does.
That’s not to say he didn’t work like a man possessed to gain this latest triumph. Because of his ultra laid back beachy persona and innocently-shaped face under curly, blonde, salt and sand-matted hair, he gives off the impression that he doesn’t have many cares in the world outside of protecting his bubble and nailing the next ride at Pipeline. But after the big win he actually revealed how tough the journey back to the top had been.
“This was hard,” he said, a little overwhelmed, tearing up whilst still in the water for the first of his post-victory interviews with the World Surf League’s correspondents.
Back on dry land, he continued: “The last seven years have been so tough. There were so many injuries, just fighting to be back in this position.”
Those injuries, by the way: a broken back, broken leg, broken arm and torn ankle ligaments.
“My family my wife, my son, my team, just everyone… I couldn’t have done it without them,” he went on, further referencing the “down days” he’d experienced along the way.
“It took a lot of visualisation, a lot of meditation, just breathing and thinking and just settling myself down in this moment and knowing this moment was coming.
"I felt sick thinking about it. It’s so crazy that it comes down to this and there’s so much pressure on this event. But what a day!”
You think he’s about as fussed about his morning bowl of açai or which mountain to hike next as he is about competing and winning but that, evidently, isn’t true. As with all great champions, he’s a fighter deep down, with a determined warrior’s drive underneath it all that allows him to ascend to levels that others simply can’t reach.
Perhaps it’s these two sides of the same coin that make Florence unique. In front of the camera, or on a podcast, he can seem shy, even awkward, the few stitched-together words that are spoken are done so softly… but the other side shows a rare, dialled-in competitiveness that turns up in the key moments, both privately and on surfing’s ultimate stage.
My favourite Florence fact is that he was apparently named after John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr, offspring of JFK. The doubling up of his forename, also ‘John John’, comes from when a reporter who was following the former President misheard him simply calling his boy’s name a couple of times in quick succession. A happy accident that stuck and was then passed down to The Aloha State’s favourite son. So good they named him twice.
Based on how non-attentively I can listen to people sometimes, I could probably get away with being called ‘Sam Sam Sam Sam’… but, hey, that’s by the by, and it’s probably too late to take on such a radically cool change in moniker, realistically.
For further reading, Florence stars in one of the greatest surf films ever made: View From a Blue Moon. Equal parts clips, biopic and behind-the-scenes peak at a life truly lived. If its 59 minutes don’t push you madly into love with the glassy teal faces, toweringly tall tubes and boiling white froth on display then, well, nothing will.