John Florence Breaks CT Sabbatical To Riff On The Rich Roll Poddy

John Florence just did something he seldom does: talked. 

We haven’t heard much from the 3x World Champ since he announced his year off, and set sail, baby on board, far, far away from the drone of the pro surfing circuit. “I don’t think anyone in the surf community was that surprised I took a break,” starts John, who identifies first and foremost as a “freesurfer”, with the important caveat, “who happens to be super competitive.”

Forgive my podcast naivety, but I assumed Rich Roll was merely the theme of the podcast and not the name of the host, who, apparently, is a rather well known ultra endurance athlete, and not a crypto billionaire platforming other cronies. Makes more sense why John’s a guest now. Anyhow, he asks about this tension – of the pursuit of competitive decoration and validating oneself in the WSL arena vs the pure joy of being wet on one’s own terms.

Interesting tidbits:

• How the WSL Finals in 2024 was “the most high pressure event” he’s ever surfed.
• What he gathered from his rookie season, which involved a lot of losing first round, and how he ameriolated it with surf trips.
• Breakthrough habits: meditation, better sleep, eating more, and DNS training with Chris Prosser. Tim Brown gets a mention too. 
• Growing Florence, “the right way” (we’ve got an article dropping on Florence’s growth spurt next week, btw).
• Keeping bees.
• Becoming slightly more risk-averse since becoming a parent.
• The Olympics.
• Content.

Good listen.