Mount up.
As the sun rose, this morning, I was expecting it to be accompanied by the guttural wail of surf fans suffering deeply from yesterday’s announcement that the most watchable surfer on earth was stepping away from the World Surf League’s 2025 season. John John Florence will not be taking his talents to Pipeline nor Abu Dhabi. No Cloudbreak, no Margaret, no Cobbled Stone and no Pipeline.
Surf fans forced to watch days upon days, hours upon hours, of Liam O’Brien and Marco Mignot instead.
World Surf League viewing is a chore during the best of times though generally punctuated with moments of respite which almost always include the three-time champion and his preternatural abilities to barrel, to air, to carve.
Now the only bit of light will be watching Filipe Toledo bobbing well out the back in plus-sized surf.
Sad in more ways than one.
You can imagine my shock, then, when surf fans appeared jubilant, not depressed, by Florence’s decision to leave off. Multiple applause hands and fire emojis under his post reading:
I want to create the time to explore, find new waves, and draw different lines. I intend to compete full on for another world title in 2026, but right now this idea of adventure and creatively pushing my surfing as far as possible is really exciting! The ocean is so big and there are so many different types of waves to explore. I’m stoked to be filming into some new projects and planning to share the amazing places we get to go along the way.
The World Surf League, itself, likely in tatters after Gabriel Medina commented “I will come join a surf trip with you.
The other three-time champion is also sitting out the first half of the 2025 season due torn pectoral muscle but it certainly seems that the adventuring life is calling him, too. The constrictive singlet ripped away.
Which raises the question: would you rather watch edits of the world’s best surfers or heats with the world’s best surfers?
If the latter, what does that mean for the future of competitive professional surfing?
Hmmmm.
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? cartoon of the week?
Gimme heats any day.
JJF ‘intention’ to surf in 2026 seems a little, meh. What’s the go with all the lack of definitive answers. Pull the pin and let the frothers have a go if you have pushed the boulder over the hill.
Grapevine says Medinas injury is a 6 weeker, plenty of time to easily make the cut and have a decent run at a title rather than a disrespectful wildcard for 2026. WSL needs to sack up and send them to the CS and let others have a fair go.
Who wants to watch a tour without the best there. Fancy asking your boss for a sick year instead of a sick day.
Goes to show how much a good pay packet can enhance the ability to enjoy a career as an elite athlete. Don’t see this shit go down in other sports.
The swsl = Small Wave Surf League FT does well in all mushy events only need to scrape in a 5th then go loopy @ mushy trestles ZZZZZZ
I hope JJ lets Gabby into the gang. We don’t see enough Gabby and it would be a nice change from all the Aloha.
I want a full length dvd of John and gabby on trips ripping and charging and etc.
VHS or GTFO
I’m here to stand against your Liam O’Brien slander!
I’ll still be tuning in for the non elimination round excitement with scintillating heats featuring powerhouse surfers such as Edgard Groggia V Ian Gouveia V Jake Marshall.
Not sounding bad,but the” Florence family,all three,the Ocean is more than a way to make a living.It is their life! I know,as dying of” Lymphoma” feeding 50″ homeless Kittycats became my life.You do,as” God intends you to” Go John Go! Dennismullin1 on tik tok
Haha it’s official
World Surf Latrine
Waiting for the whole Trestles finals debacle to blow over and points system to come back in place, smart move.
Is Erin Brooks next?
with the mass deportations, will ICE remove the young Brooks from the North Shore and banish the newly citizenized Canadian citizen to the great white north…..eh?
Only Fans content
Just give the trophy to Simpo now
Non John and Medi’nah
Bert and Ernie
Billy and Kemper
C.J Hobgood the asterisk World Champ is going to have some company.
What Gabby meant was
“May I come join a surf trip
with you please John John”?
Better take the wives and kids John remember how your mom raised you three
The leak of the inevitable sex tape will have us wanking for years!
Xox
Hey dogs have you slithered that serpentine body of yours ( I imagine) into an Attica suit and whatta ya think if so
I am always gonna error on the side of no Turpel.
would rather watch live surfing than a video pretty much across the board, which is about the only thing the WSL has going for it. But if they start live streaming these slab fest trips, WSL may be gone forever…
**last point: the scoring, as pathetic as it is sometimes, gives everyone something to argue about, which does enhance the overall dynamic. So maybe a slab tour with an elimination element, lol.
True… IF the waves are good. However, since Mother Nature seems to hate the WSL, good surf during a contest window is the exception.
Me, I’d rather watch JJF and Gabs free-surfing than live contest footage with shit waves… the latter being the typical WSL fare.
good point — and relatedly, maybe I’m just getting old but the thing I do really appreciate about the way Nate Flo edits his videos is that he doesn’t just drop clips of himself already on the wave like a bunch of the other chop hop influencer types — he shows all the paddling around and the positioning and the drops. I might be a geezer, but I’m pretty mesmerized by the paddling into position and watching the approach he takes to get in the wave, often find it more interesting than the wave riding itself.
You are a geezer
worry not young rocks.
JJF and team will be realizing an exceptional surf movie from this exploration adventure, that will blow away a season of wsl comp footage.
Sounds like Red Bull Shipsterns and Ours
Cape Fear is definitely top five surf comps I’ve watched.
Red Bull Jaws also a highlight, and Cloudbreak that time