Official: No LA Olympics or 2027 tour return for John John Florence

"We need more time," he says. "There's a lot of momentum with what I'm doing now."

The curious and jubilant life of pro-surfer-turned-sailorman John John Florence will continue, at least for one more year, after he confirmed to ESPN that there would be no chase for Olympic glory nor a paw placed on the tour hamster wheel in 2027.

John John Florence, three-times a lady and only just turned thirty four, has lived a life, at least so far, that will be transformed into a glorious page in the history of humankind

A childhood both difficult and blessed, injuries overcome, a sport dominated, as the French say, from barbe au cul, now, a wife, a gorgeous child and a life lived simply on a million-dollar catamaran. What a thrill, an honour, it has been to watch the novice sailor suddenly comfortable with all sheets to the wind, and see him confidently traverse the Pacific, the viewer watching baby Dez grow up almost in real time.

Now, in a candid interview with ESPN’s Alyssa Roenigk, John John Florence has definitively ruled out a hunt for gold in LA and any return to the WSL tour in 2027.

HE WAKES TO freezing cold on Nov. 1, the WSL’s deadline day. When Florence and his crewmates on this crossing — his longtime cinematographer Erik Knutson and sailor Jack Davidson — left Tahiti on Oct. 22, four days after his 34th birthday, the air was warm and humid. They sailed west, the sun rising later each morning, and waited for a weather window before heading south toward New Zealand, their final destination of the year.

“This was our most challenging crossing of the year,” he says. “There were only three of us on the boat and the crossing was about 2,200 [nautical] miles. We dealt with a lot of different types of weather.” They crossed the international date line during their nearly two-week trip.

“When you’re heading straight west, the sun rises a little later every morning,” he says. “You have a watch time that’s locked at a certain point each morning, and by the end of the trip, your watch time is at a different part of the day. When we started heading south, you feel it getting colder and colder. Then you wake up one morning and it’s freezing and you’re in a whole different climate.”

Florence is relaying all of this in a series of voice notes he recorded three days later, after arriving in Whangarei, the northernmost city in New Zealand, and spending hours clearing customs. He sounds exhausted. He has had little sleep over the past few days, since he texted his agent and his family to inform them that he would not apply for a season wild card for 2027.

Florence had plenty of time to reflect while standing watch during this crossing: on the family’s first year at sea, when they were all just figuring things out, and on this year, when so much started to click. “I try to take things in three-year blocks,” he says. Throughout his career, he has looked at winning a world title much the same way. “The third year becomes ultra fun because you’ve learned a lot of little tricks and you’re off and running.”

The first two years are the process. He wants to see what the third might bring. He doesn’t want to rob himself and his family of that chance.

“We need more time,” he says. “There’s a lot of momentum with what I’m doing now.”

It’s quiet in the background, the occasional chirping bird the only sound other than Florence’s voice. He speaks deliberately, weighing his words.

“But me choosing to do this isn’t choosing never to compete again,” he says. “I’m hopefully going to be in the Pipe event [in December] with a wild card. And then [for 2028], I don’t know. I have a huge amount of respect for the athletes and the tour. If you don’t want to be there, if your heart and mind isn’t 110% into it, then you shouldn’t be there. It’s hard on the people around you. I don’t want to take a spot if my mind isn’t 100% there.”

Now there are no immovable goals. He’d like to sail around the world, but he also wants to spend more time in the places he has fallen in love with over the past two years. He wants to continue to explore and find new waves. “Sailing brings together all my love for the ocean and I’m learning to be on the ocean in a different way,” he says. “But I’m still surfing and becoming a better surfer. I’m building projects around what we’re doing and I’m doing it with my family. All these things in my life are pointing me in one direction.”

End of an era, possibly even pro surfing, yes?