When they go low, JJF goes high. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
John John Florence knows Pipeline better than almost anyone. It was his playground growing up, along with all the other waves of the North Shore, and you can tell. You can tell because John John surfs waves like Pipeline with an odd kind of instinct that only comes from riding a wave like that since you were just a kid.
Take, for example, the very brief clip of him in this video from Off Da Lip. It starts about a minute in. Pipeline has been going off in recent weeks, and it appears to be slowing a bit. The crowds are still there, but surfers like John often get their pick, both because they’re in the right spot and their stature there.
And while the three-time world champion doesn’t come out of the wave in question, he instinctually takes a super high line as he attempts to do so.
“John Florence was pushing himself to go as deep as he possibly could in the barrel on this day,” Off Da Lip wrote. “Never seen such a crazy highline like this before.”
Sure, it didn’t work, but getting up to the most powerful part of a wave in a blink of an eye because he knew the wave was going to be a tough one to get out of shows just how dialed in he is.
