“I never realized how much we push ourselves surfing. My brother Nathan and I have 20 strains all the time."
There’s a hint of wildness and pathos in John John Florence’s rough boy persona, this almost thirty-year-old two-time world champion with the impervious reputation.
He is the last custodian of the old way, talk softly, carry a big stick, surf with power and brilliance.
But, still, even a two-time world champion like John John is prey to the fragility of the human body.
After back-to-back world titles in 2016 and 2017, John John tore his ACL the following year, missed the back end of the tour and finished thirty-fifth.
In 2019, John John hit four events and three in 2021.
Ankles, back, knees, he’s been belted.
Still, as he told AAP recently, the injuries have “made me a better surfer in a weird way, I think a smarter surfer. I feel like I’m more patient on the wave, and I feel like I’m stronger because I’m training more… Before (the injuries) all I could think about was, ‘I just want to win’. Now it’s more about, ‘Ok, how do I relax enough to surf how I really want to surf these waves’. It seems so simple, but it’s such a hard mindset to get into allowing yourself to surf how you would surf normally, without all that extra anxiety of it being in a contest and having people watching and judging you.”
“I never realized how much we push ourselves surfing, especially when we’re free surfing and having fun. My brother Nathan and I have 20 strains all the time. Regularly having 20.6, 20.7 strain. I didn’t realize how much of a toll surfing takes [before I wore WHOOP],” he says.
“The biggest benefit of using WHOOP for me is to be able to keep an eye on how much training and how much activity I’m doing, because I tend to overdo things. And so for me to be able to see it and be able to see the recoveries is very helpful for me, because if I’m not doing that, I’ll just keep going and going and going until something breaks. I have a good idea of what my recoveries will be and what I need to do to recover. I know that if I strain from 18 to 20 one day, two days in a row, then I know that I’m in need for a big recovery day.”
“It definitely makes me more mindful of what I’m doing,” he says.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Just wanted to chime in here and say that wearables are highly inaccurate and there’ve been plenty of studies to back it up. Even just having your phone in your pocket is a better fitness tracker than anything you can buy for the simple fact that it is affixed to your center of gravity. I love the idea of something like this, but study after study shows how inaccurate these fitness bracelets really are.
Death by a thousand whoops..(articles)
Great click bait play there!
When he said “strains” I thought he was talking about his cannabis collection. As for myself I only have 3 strains. A strong indica for getting sucked into the couch to watch dvr’d WSL events or YouTube cooking shows. An indica dominant hybrid when I want to get frisky or listen to tunes with headphones. Lastly a mild sativa for warm tropical beaches, waves and sunsets. I wish I could enjoy edibles but they either don’t work or have me too high for 8 hours plus.
I bet he yelled WHOOOOOPS real loud when he went for that air in Brazil
Jjf was one of the few professional surfers I’d bother to watch.
Now I know his just whoop strap peddling whore I’ll give him a big miss.
I’m gonna wait until the day after your advertising contract ends and then buy one and not use your code
get two, one for each wrist, and see how far out they are.
Savage and clever!
You got me. I actually read this drivel until I saw the word Whoop.
My dad appears every now and again with a bracelet on his ankle. Don’t see him about much. Saw him take it off once. Fuck he could run fast. Cops even turned up to race him. Couldn’t catch him though, not my dad. I miss dad. Maybe i’ll get a whoop and be like him.