John John Florence. This is the guy. Photo: WSL/Kelly Cestari
Forget about LeBron James and Anakin Skywalker. John John Florence is “The Chosen One.” It’s not even over yet, but 2016 has most definitely been the year of John John. The wunderkind has already captured the World Title without even surfing a single heat at Pipe, and at 24 could be embarking on an era of dominance unseen outside of Kelly Slater. With 2017 set to be Slater’s final season on tour, the torch has essentially been passed to Florence, and surfing could not ask for a better ambassador.
John John has been sponsored since he was six years old, yet he’s one of the humbler surfers within the WCT ranks. Just think about how most 24-year-olds would act if they’d already reached the pinnacle of their craft. He’s the most complete and dynamic surfer in the world, something that pretty much all of his peers have to admit at this point. Former WCT competitor Mitch Crews went so far as to say, “He makes it look stupidly easily no matter how big or small the wave is. He is the man out there, rules the lineup and makes everyone look silly. He is the man, and most of us are not.” That was in 2014, and Florence has only gotten better since then.
Nobody beats John’s ability in the tube, his grace in the air and his creativity on the open face all rolled into one inconceivable package. It’s as if the surfing gods dropped their own personal messiah down onto the island of Oahu to show us what is possible in the water, and it needs to be appreciated. I mean, the guy was in the Triple Crown when he was just 13 and weighed less than 100 pounds, surfing waves that would chew up and spit out the vast majority of full-sized wave-riders. He’s won The Eddie, two Triple Crowns and now a World Title, but his importance to the sport might be more than that.
Like it or not, surfing is becoming more and more of a mainstream sport, yet many people still see Jeff Spicoli when they hear the word “surfer.” It’s paramount for the face of surfing to represent the best things in surf culture as it’s introduced to more of the world. Surfing is different for everyone yet still very much the same. We can all relate to one another thanks to our pursuit of riding waves. In my experience, most surfers are creative, thoughtful and soulful people. John John, a down-to-earth old soul that appreciates every minute he spends in the water, represents the best in all of us. He’s not in this for the fame, doesn’t seem to care about the money. Florence loves the ocean, loves to sail, loves to surf. He shows and commands respect.
“It’s really cool to see how simple everything becomes once you’re doing that,” Florence says in the documentary Twelve. “It’s all being an artist in your own way and being creative whether you’re surfing or you’re sailing. You have no choice but to be present, and it makes you forget about everything else that is going on. It’s almost a meditation in a way because you’re not tied to a schedule and you’re not tied to time, and you can take as long as you want to get to somewhere. That’s the fun; that’s the freedom of it.”
Now that’s someone I can follow into the next era of surfing.
