“The atmosphere has changed a lot. It doesn’t suit my personality anymore.”
The past year has been a game of picking up clues from John John Florence, scattered hither and yon, about the imminence of his retirement.
A little except from Surf Ads’ thought piece back in July after John John Florence, who won world titles in 2016 and 2017, posted his now-legendary “devastating throat punch to the WSL” on Instagram.
Why bother with the WSL?
John John Florence has done it all. Two time world champion. Greatest surfer in the world from two to twenty feet. Unmatched admiration from the surfing universe. Why stay chained to the tour when it delivers so little to him?
There’s nothing left on the tour for John John Florence. And with every underscore, every mistimed comp window, every title decided at 4 foot Trestles, with his little brother and the world slab tour beckoning, with the carrot of Olympic qualification dangling for a only a couple more months… the question must be asked again and again. Why bother with the WSL?
Last month, Chas Smith wrote that “Conventional wisdom has John John Florence sailing into the sunset after the 2024 Paris Olympics which will be held at Teahupo’o.”
Now, in a bombshell interview with “scandal-prone surf-adjacent” website The Inertia, John John Florence has spoken openly of quitting the tour.
“I think about (quitting) all the time,” says John John Florence. “It’s hard for me sometimes because my personality doesn’t fit (competing) so well. And especially the new tour over the last couple of years, the environment of it has changed a lot. It doesn’t fit my personality even more so.”
Ominously, given the WSL’s intent to spoon-feed small-wave wizard Filipe Toledo world titles in two-foot waves via its Trestles Finals Day, Florence said,
wait… wait… the most important thing to ponder here about this piece of surf journalism is… just how did the kids at the Inertia office react and act amongst one another at the water cooler when they realized BeachGrit had acknowledged their existence with this shocking, never-saw-it-coming, earth-shattering bombshell?
What’s the WSL?
autographed Hallmark PostCard from Owl’s Ranch & Shooting Ranges…https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne…
Message box is full and can’t take anymore message….Goodbye
My money is on it being perpetually full
Did anyone catch this “the world title being won at waste-high Lowers” Haha. Not Waist high. Freudian for sure.
He could win at trestles but would have to do some serious work on his style.
You think JJF could make youtube work? It incentivizes consistent production so much that its more of a grind than the WSL. JJF may have enough pull to override that though, I don’t really understand that world.
Now I see why brother Nathan is burning up a small country’s worth of carbon
every couple of days to chase a new swell . I think he needs to associate himself with a greenwash brand to offset – could JJF help?
Come on let’s call it now. The wsl is a dead root.
Although that photo really brings out his intelligence, here’s a more recent one…
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
John John has been on the Tour for more than a decade.
He’s won two world titles, had several major operations on his right knee and with the WSL Tour fixed for the foreseeable future in a format that does not favour his power surfing in large waves repertoire and with a wife and sailing catamaran, plus loads of money for other toys and amusements it would not be surprising if he found other things to do with his time than surf in WSL contests.
He won’t win another title under the current setup, with the Grand Final at Trestles and the people at Florence Marine X don’t care if he competes or not – at this point, he doesn’t have anything he needs to prove as a competitive surfer.
He’s already qualified for the Olympics and is currently healthy. All he needs to do is surf the ISA World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico and he is in the Olympics. My bet is he won’t do the tour, will do ISA and Olympics and live happily ever after, possibly with a Gold Medal around his neck.
To be fair, it’s not like he’s been on the tour recently. The rise in popularity of his bro’s vlog would be gnawing away like a hungry termite. JMD and Brazil or death slabs 🤷🏻♂️
Be free John John, be free! Freeeeeee!!
So the inertia is doing interviews with JJF, Stab puts out quality video content, and Beachgrit has
board reviews,gossip,quality long form reads, links to YouTube 24hrs after I’ve already watched the video.don’t forget the snarky intros to the quotes pulled from the previously watched utoob videos!!
To be fair, BG does shine in unexpected moments, including the various stuff posted recently on the Israel/Palestine conflict, which is clearly surf (very) adjacent but at least provided a platform for what was, all things considered and in light of the discussions (i.e., screaming at each other) on the same topic going on elsewhere, a pretty levelheaded conversation where all sides could say their peace (sic). Sure, there was some flaming and a little trolling here and there, but compared to how the rest of the world is discussing the same thing, it was damn near refreshing.
But if we’re just talking surf content, it’s anything JP or Jen See put up (and Surf Ads, in his somewhat rare appearances). And I’m guessing the reason 90% of us check this place so frequently is to see if one of them have a headline … well, that, and the casual bs shared by you and the rest of the mf-ers down here.
https://youtu.be/0MxT31Nqys…
How else is he going to promote his overpriced yuppie surf goods? We’ll be looking at him like we do Slater soon enough.
More importantly, what’s his advice for an exit strategy from the Middle East for the US?
The haircut. Mullet or no?
brutal … looks like he’s gone country.
comfortin’ to know says Bernie Taupin…
https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx….
Can we get odds on who is going to scoop the “JJF is retiring and here’s what he’s going to do now” article coming next year? I have Stab as the fav. Intertia, Surfer, BG in following order.
pretty sure Vegas just de-listed BG.
Rua John has just been in New Zealand for too long. Country full of 3rd place getters isn’t good for the competitiveness of a high level Pro.
Hey, NZ got second in the rugby!
Why did you pick a photo that makes him look dumber than sling blade?
Don’t let the blank stare fool ya, he’s got uhh hmm. ahh , never mind.
thats why
Zoing…we’ll be all right~