John John Florence, pre-upset at The Hurley Pro. Photo: ASP/Rowland
Two rounds and one major upset later, we can start to analyze some of the happenings.
The upset, of course, is everyone’s favourite surfer JJ Florence getting knocked out by Brazilian Alejo Muniz. It was a strange heat at the Hurley Pro. Alejo Muniz was content to put as many reos into a wave as possible and build a score. JJ seemed to be trying to find the sections to do a repeat of the air heard around the world at Keramas, Bali. Florence undisputedly laid down the best one off maneuvers of this heat, but in the end, he didn’t challenge Alejo’s final score of 15.80.
Following on from my post yesterday, is facing the pressure something JJ needs to work on if he’s to be a world champion? Faced with the same situation, Slater adapts to the climate and outdoes his opponent. Simply put, Slater will do anything to win – even if that means, in this case, doing relatively risk free reos on a couple of waves. He is more concerned with winning than, for lack of a better term, showing off.
But does Florence care? It would be interesting to hear more on his thoughts about this. I get the sense he does care, especially now that the results aren’t coming. A lot of us would have backed him to win the whole tour this year. Even when he missed Bells and Rio with an injury, I thought he still had a chance of winning. When enough people start talking you up, it’s hard for anyone to not get caught in the hype. I would suggest that Medina is still coming to terms with this. Having a whole country believe you have won the tour before you have has to put a lot of pressure on you.
And what do we want? I love the the all-or-nothing approach, but perhaps this should come in at the more important, later stages of competition. Adopt Slater’s and Parko’s method of playing it safe – until you need to do more.
