All three Florence brothers have very distinct styles, don’t they? Photos: YouTube//Screenshot
Back in May, the Florence brothers went surfing together at Backdoor. That’s nothing new, of course, but it sure must be nice that it’s nothing new. John John, Nate, and Ivan were out with a few friends, and as usual, John was likely at least thinking a bit about the upcoming El Salvador event. It’s likely that when he’s surfing outside of an event, he’s got a training mentality. Training for whatever event is on the horizon.
“Last session before El Salvador on the Power Tiger model I ended up surfing in the event,” he wrote. “Focused on creating speed, following instinct, and finding little barrels.”
As you likely know by now, John ended up winning the event. But as he recently revealed, as time passes, he’s realized something about himself: it’s not so much the winning he enjoys, but everything that comes before it.
“It was actually the process that led up to winning that I enjoyed the most,” he explained. “I think that’s where my mindset has evolved over the last few years, kind of post-titles. It was a hard one because you have friends and family and everyone around you in your circle is just excited. You just won two world titles in a row and everyone wants you to win three and four and five… it’s really easy to get wrapped up in that outer story that people create around you, rather than trusting the inner story that you have within yourself. It’s really funny what your mind and body will do when you don’t want to be somewhere.”
