Rumors of John John Florence’s fascination with sailing have not been greatly exaggerated. If anything, it seems like they’re understated.
Case in point: Florence sails foil boats. And racing boats.
“Sailing in general for me has opened my mind up to a whole different world,” says John John Florence in his brand new project, VELA, which documents his expedition to the Palmyra Atoll in the Line Islands after getting injured last year.
“I’m super thankful to have met so many awesome people in the sailing world,” says Florence. “When I go on these big race boats, I’m a beginner, and I’m trying to learn everything and I’m so excited, and I can come back to surfing and look at it with a totally different mindset. With a different framework.”
The best tend to get inspired by adjacent, sometimes unrelated influences, and it seems that sailing has played a critical role in expanding John John Florence’s approach to surfing.
“I love surfing and competing, and that’s where I put the majority of my time, but getting injured this year kinda gave me that silver lining to go sailing and do this dream trip I’ve been wanting to do. I just wanted to do an open ocean trip and go somewhere that none of us had been. I was pretty nervous about a trip this big.”
“What Nainoa (Thompson) and the Hokule’a team has done to explore and sail around the world navigating off their knowledge of the ocean, their knowledge of the stars has shown me how knowledge can be freedom.”
Florence and his crew, consisting of Kona Johnson, Nathan Florence, Jacques Vincent, and Eric Knutson, are committed to finding out for themselves. We’re excited to watch the journey unfold.
Episode one is above, and episode two is below. Enjoy.
