You couldn’t miss the obvious disappointment in Joao Chianca’s voice after his Round of 32 shootout with John John Florence. For the second time this year he and Florence had just produced the best heat of an event. Also for the second time, Chianca was heading home early from a contest simply because he’d drawn the two-time champion.
“It’s so much to process,” he said after the loss. “I really think John brings the best out of me. I just try to not lose my faith.”
That last remark was an acknowledgment of his current predicament: John John Florence has singlehandedly almost ended Joao Chianca’s rookie CT campaign. That’s a tough pill to swallow. In their Round of 16 Heat at Pipe in January, Joao’s 16.74 would have advanced against all but Florence and Kelly Slater’s buzzer-beater over Baron Mamiya. At Bells Wednesday, had it not been for facing the Hawaiian, Chianca’s 17.73 would have beaten the entire field. Instead, he needs a big result at Margaret River or he’s facing relegation.
“I’m stoked to lose this way but it’s complicated because I see tour rookies having a whole year of competition and now I only have one event left.”
On one hand, you have to feel for the man. He’s getting his first crack at the Championship Tour — a lifelong dream — and now he’s here. On the other hand, while Joao is one of the most exciting younger athletes on tour with sky-high upside potential as a CT regular, he’s not exactly lighting up the leaderboard unless John John is in the water. He earned an equal 17th at Sunset and in Portugal earlier this season, bowing out to Seth Moniz and Conner Coffin in the Round of 32. There’s something about Florence that is raising the bar for the Rookie. That is not a bad thing. Chianca has surfed eight heats on the 2022 tour. He’s notched a single ride in the excellent score range against the rest of the tour. In his three heats with Florence (one was a non-elimination heat at Pipe), he’s collected four of them.
That matchup isn’t boosting just one side of the bubbling rivalry though. Florence’s highest heat totals have come against Chianca, with a 17.3 in their Round of 16 Pipe faceoff and Wednesday’s ridiculous 18.86, built on an 8.93 and 9.93 two-wave total. Florence hasn’t matched those heat totals in any other elimination round this season.
“It’s different, you know, because you haven’t surfed with him the past few years,” Florence said of going blow-for-blow against a CT rookie. “You don’t know their type of surfing. What type of waves they’re getting scores on, so it’s just learning the way they surf.”
So yeah, there’s something in the water when John John Florence and Joao Chianca draw each other. Wednesday saw one helluva shootout between the two that somehow bested the show they put on in Hawaii earlier in the year. I, for one, hope Joao makes the midyear cut so we have more opportunities to see he and JJF go at it.
