He alone will either make or break the greatest ever theoretical surfer!
Remember when, two plus years ago and after winning his first world title, John John Florence announced to the world that he would be taking Ross Williams out of the World Surf League announcer booth and set him up alone on a bench with big sunglasses covering his face to be coach? I do. I remember it well and remember the correlating emotional response of “Why?” If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Right?
Well, John John won his second title the very next year and was it because he is the best surfer in the world or because Ross fiddled with the inputs and outputs and coached really well? We had absolutely no way of knowing.
No way of knowing until this year. Students of the game are aware that John John Florence, after losing to Jesse Mendes in Bali is mired in the high teens. And let us read Longtom’s analysis of his heat, and Ross’s reaction to it, here.
Is there anything sadder than watching John Florence surfing this year? Yes… watching Ross Williams watch John write another chapter in his 2018 novella Anatomy of a Bad Heat. Kaipo cornered Ross for a quick interview and it was one of the most painful broadcast moments in world sport. Ross stumbling and mumbling platitudes that fall from his mouth like wet ashes. Platitudes that he has obviously stopped believing in but there is nowhere else to go.
In this chapter, John started weakly with a desultory opening ride, then a non-make. A couple of clean makes in perfect head-high surf saw him sitting on a heat score of 11.97. Jesse Mendes needing a a five-something with three minutes holding priority. The wave came, he launched a lofted tail-high backside rotation and nailed the score. John head down looked as emasculated as a sterilised lion. His head is a mess. Ross, get your man out and claim an injury wildcard for next year. Get him out by any means necessary.
Brilliant but more importantly brings us to a very important inflection point in the John John Florence and Ross Williams saga. One that I’ve been waiting for. For I believe from this moment on we will have clarity as to the importance and value of coaching.
If:
John John continues to flail this year and gets out of the gates slowly next etc. I think we can lay all blame at the feet of Ross Williams. We can say that he took the world’s greatest theoretical surfer and destroyed him and wrecked him and dragged his carcass along the coral heads.
John John finds a way out of this slump and wins some events and starts next year hotter than a fever with world title number three buzzing I think we can lay all praise at the feet of Ross Williams. We can say he rescued the world’s greatest theoretical surfer from a life of Dane and elevated him to his rightful place amongst competitive professionals.
Right?
If you were Ross Williams would you like these scenarios, either all blame or all credit? Well, it takes money to make money, baby.
I like the idea of putting the blame on the coach. NFL and NBA coaches are gone after a couple of crap seasons. This is kinda different though. It’s as if Phil was only judged on MJ’s or Koby’s solo performances. A single athlete can’t be refined and altered in the same manner as a team. The coach can only do so much for the individual. The real question is how much of a tangible impact does Ross actually have and is it measurable.
JJ should honestly start pulling a zeke (originally, a medina) against the other guy in every heat to combat this tactic.
Instead of blaming Ross for the impossible: ensuring that JJ wins every time he hits the water, why don’t you guys admit that he may be (JJ I mean), the most exciting and talented surfer in the world but he’s SIMPLY NOT the best competitive surfer in the world. He’s not your Slater 2.0. Swallow this and stop whining.
“greatest theoretical surfer?”
what theories does jjf propound!?
social constructionism?
marxism?
maybe he is just over the whole wsl circus and wants to go sailing and surfing where he wants too, he has nothing to prove to anyone, he has grown up his whole life in the public eye and i bet the spotlight that came with the world titles was probably a little to much for him to take on without something giving.
Isn’t Ross a God botherer? I blame God entirely. Also, why does my auto correct give God a capital G.
It just needs to be mentioned. Ross Williams, I believe never won a professional contest in his life. WQS, Bud Tour or WCT. Micro, Tommy Whits, Bede, Snake all were “subpar-talent” surfers who used their heat intuition to garner them victories on different levels. The thing about the most influential group of surfers in history in the Momentum Generation, was that besides Slater or Machado, they were not great competitive surfers at all. Dorian I believe has 2 CT wins, Taylor 1 and Kalani 1.
“We’ve been talkin’ ’bout….Jackson,
ever since the fire went ouuuuuut,
I’m going to Jackson………………..”
I’ll just throw this out there
J has always had a hard time with heat tactics compared with other surfers of his level. He has been interested in how to surf heats for sure, but doesn’t have a natural feel for the other surfer in a heat.
We watched him tinker around with this for a while, then in 2016 get Bede Durbidge on board precisely to assist on this score. J learned a lot in the almost-year he spent working with Bede, who knows heat play like any one of his generation. It helped win him that very easy first world title.
He rolled into year two with tremendous confidence and put on that staggering display at Margaret River, which just so clearly demonstrated his fully formed skills. (Played the heats very well too in that event.) Honestly, John coulda walked to that second title after Margaret River. But you know what, he kinda didn’t. All 2017 he began to slide backward in his use of heat tactics and handed back some easy heats in the process. I feel this was covered a bit by all our sense of him being the dominant talent other than maybe Filipe at J-Bay (he did get burned at J-Bay too).
By Pipe last year, most of his momentum was gone and he was actually being exposed by guys like Ethan Ewing, who you may recall nearly got him simply by standing in the way and refusing to budge.
Youse talk about the Ghost, well the Ghost hasn’t been out of the locker room this year. I think J’s heat tactical learning curve, which took off with Bede in 2016, has stalled. He’s not being given the space to win heats on talent alone and he’s not on a roll. Result, well, you can see the result. People go through this stuff in their careers, including world champs; you might notice Tyler Wright isn’t out front right now even though she’s surfing superbly and works with a coach who knows heats inside out.
I’m not inside Ross’s and John’s coach-surfer relationship so will let that go till I get a chance to talk with them. One thing is for SURE, it’s no time to get off tour. There’s only one way through this sorta moment and that is to keep going, surf more heats, hack away at it, and trust yourself as a surfer and a competitor to turn it around.
If it looks like a Ghost, quacks like a Ghost… (Deleted other comment for better image)
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
According to Hawaiian politicians only people with Hawaiian blood are Hawaiian. Ergo…JJF ain’t Hawaiian.
But he is still kama’aina, and not a mainland haole.
No one can ever not be a haole if one it vaguely Anglo-looking.
There are many shades of grey beyond that definition though.
Kama’aina..definitely.
One of my best days wandering around Haleiwa was when I got the kama’aina discount at one of the shops in the Marketplace.
native polynesian hawaiians call themselves, kānaka maoli
I think JJF should embrace the life of Dane, but take it one step further. Drop off tour, move to a remote part of New Zealand and take up longboarding. Leave it 10 years until everyone starts to forget about him and launch his own brand of medicinal marijuana
Quoting what Longtom said, JJF was emasculated a little while before, but by Ross Williams. As a coach he should never have written what he wrote on Instagram defending JJF. That was the inflection point. JJF has to be a man by himself, and speak about his atitudes by himself, if he thinks that’s the case. If he was a kid learning to be a man, it would problably be ok butit isn’t. He isn’t a fragile kid even if sometimes he fells/ looks like one. He had the strenght to be twice a world champ on his own merits and being who he is. He needs to be directed, not defended…
Honest question though – where did Ross come from as a coach? Is there a backstory to John’s selection of Ross? Seems outrageous that John, a man whom any wannabe-coach would scramble to, picked someone with such a limited claim to coaching ability.
Or maybe I’m an ignorant bastard unaware of the mysto-coaching powers of Ross Williams..
His seeding ruined the start.
I bet medina gets this year, JJF the next.
I can only remember this scene…
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
J-Bay is all FB broadcast is that right??? Anyone know if other platforms, if so we need LT over there with sharpened pencil
oh shitttttt. i guess i need a fake fb account now!
Depends on your proclivity for leaving handprints on hotcoats.
Yes.
Think the way forward is to claim JJ swallowed too much plastic and a few nappies in Bali and go the injury wildcard due to stomach disorders – its working for the GOAT
No… yes… maybe no… maybe yes… or
Ask Zeke… or Laird…