John Florence, flip practise in WA

Baby steps, baby steps. That’s what y’gotta take. An off-axis air-revs today, a legit upside-down flip tomorrow. That’s how John Florence here rolls. Fellow-Hawaiian Matt Meola has pumped out a coupla web clips in the last few months, that showed him hucking frontside double-grab flips into the Maui trade winds. Whether or not John’s been inspired by those flips in uncertain, but as photog Ryan Miller says, “He’s been making a few of these lately. A small one here and not yet upside down, but don’t think for a second that once he gets comfortable he won’t be throwing down some massive flips like this. Don’t worry – it’ll come soon enough.” Stabdon’t doubt it. Nor does Taj Burrow – after John won the final of the Telstra Drug Aware Pro, Margaret River on sunday, Taj said: “John-John is the fucking man, by the way. I can’t believe what that kid has been doing.”