John Florence’s 6 Non-Surfing Essentials For His Year Off Tour
Surfing’s one-man quality control center.
(This feature has been produced in collaboration with Honolulu Ford).
John Florence re-designed his entire life around gear.
Over the years, the 3x World Champ has torn up numerous lucrative deals in order to start his own brands, create his own products, and attempt to navigate the incredibly murky surf industry waters to make it all work financially.
That’s a huge personal risk and a lot of sweat required to wear a pair of boardshorts you truly love. And yet the scrupulous R&D process continues, both for his namesake brand — Florence — and the handful of other companies John partners with or holds ownership in. Why? Because John loves gear, and knows that when you’re in the elements, equipment can often split the difference between triumph and disaster.
And it’s working: what John uses shifts the dial in our world. The proof? Jamie O’Brien, talking to John on the Jamie and Mason Show podcast, mentioning the army of competent surfers out pumping surf in the Mentawais wearing John’s hooded Florence Marine X rash top.
“When I was surfing Lance’s Rights, if there were 40 guys in the lineup, 30 of them were in the John Florence rash guard,” Jamie said to John and Mason Ho.
“It’s an army,” John responds, with total confidence — before going on to explain that it was a product he and the brothers loved, developed, and stand behind.
“Nate and I were wearing it and were like… ‘I don’t know why people aren’t more into this, we should try to make it cool,’” John explains, modestly.
That’s A+ marketing right there.
Furthermore, John’s recently announced that 2025 is a CT leap year for him, instead choosing to spend the year pushing his waterman’s existence — and the gear he needs to do it — to its limit. And when we say “gear”, we’re talking Gear Patrol-type gems — not wax ‘n leggie strings. Why? Because you already know that John rides Pyzel surfboards and Futures fins.
As John unrolls the maps and searches for his compass, we asked him for a list of the first five things on the pack list for 2025.
The YETI story: two outdoorsy brothers started the brand because their huntin’, shootin’ and keepin-suds-cold needs weren’t being met — slots in nicely with John’s second commercial coming. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that first cab off the gear rank is one of their endlessly useful wares.
Most hear “cooler” and think food, but John makes the valuable point that when it comes to utilizing space, every bit helps (something he would have learned aboard Falcor). Insert wax and fins for the way out, replace with ice ’n’ beer for the return trip.
A bomb-proof box fit for stinky fish, wax, fins ‘n tins.
“I take this jacket everywhere,” John says of his brand’s hallmark terra firma product. And he really means everywhere, as anyone who’s seen Nathan Florence piloting his 3-Layer Shell down surfing’s most inhospitable tracks can attest.
“We put a lot of research into the multi-use layering on the Shell to try and make it as versatile as possible when traversing different climates,” John explains. “I’m really proud of what we’ve created.”
If you need a bleak midwinter shell, then trust in John’s wares.
Leica M7
John’s been taking photos since before it was cool, and we’ve got the snaps to prove it. For most, the arduously expensive practice of shooting and developing film lasted as long as their penchant for dance music. However, for others, noughties passions stuck, and John’s had a camera around his neck ever since.
“I’ve really enjoyed taking photos of my adventures for almost as long as I’ve been travelling,” John says, simply. “I travel literally everywhere with this camera.”
Elevate your holiday snaps with a hundred year old German brand.
If you drink coffee and travel, then you know that you can’t rely on there perpetually being a good cafe (that opens early enough) on every corner. Furthermore, banking on the coffee-making setups of hotels, guesthouses, or Airbnbs is a fool’s errand. What abodes unanimously do have, however, is a kettle — something that John Florence knows.
He also knows that glass and baggage handlers don’t mix, so for any sort of traveling coffee maker you have to keep it plastic. Throwing in whole beans and a natty grinder like the VSSL? That’s just a bougie touch that’ll be appreciated by every other bean fiend in the vicinity.
“At this point, making coffee on the road is a ritual,” John says, shaking his grinder. “These two get used every day regardless of where in the world I am!”
When you spend as much time in the elements as John and the brothers Florence, sunglasses need to protect your eyes and stay on your face at all costs, with everything else coming second. Sailing in particular — perhaps John’s premier passion outside of surfing — is notoriously brutal on the eyes (and lenses).
For big days on the water, John chooses M-Experiment, which, interestingly, is the latest, tech-forward eyewear offering from Jim Jannard (the visionary behind Oakley), launched in 2023.
“I’m in the sun or staring at the ocean, every day,” John says. “Sunglasses are a daily essential for me, and the Pleasure from M-Experiment is my daily driver.”
If you need a new practical eyewear co in your life, look no further.
Whilst all the products that John uses have a bottom line like anything else, John himself is the mark of quality that drives sales. This is why John’s gear deals tend to involve a (relatively) small amount of capital and a (not so) small amount of equity in return for surfing’s royal seal of approval.
“I want to create the time to explore, find new waves, and draw different lines,” John said in his explanation for leaving the tour in 2025. “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.”
How far John Florence can push surfing is anyone’s guess. At least we know what he’ll be using along the way.
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