John Florence, release and salute, Teahupoo

See this? This, right here, is what’s most right with surfing at this moment. After spending 10 days on the Kustom Airstrike boat trip in the Mentawais, John Florence flew to Tahiti with bros Ivan and Nathan, fellow Hawaiians Koa Rothman and Eli Olson and filmer-slash-photog Blake Kueny. And while, by all reports, Nathan stepped up on this trip, it’s always hard to go past dear John. Ivan’s goofy and stands tall on his frontside, but John and Nathan share a Florence technique on their backhand. “They were taking off and letting go of their rails and standing in the big barrels,” says Blake. “They all ride super small boards, they ride 6’1″ or 6’2″s. So they take off right under the lip and fall with the lip. Then they grab the rail, set their line and stand up straight.” Which is where photog Dom Mosqueira finds John here. And you better believe that John and Nathan waits for the bigger, more square ones. “They kinda sit further out than everyone, but they start paddling early and really hard for them. So committed. They also sit more west than everyone else ’cause they want those west ones. They’re the ones that come sideways at it. They’re those crazy, slabby, square ones, from the other direction, and they look like they’re gonna close out the channel but then they just open up.” Looking forward to watching a similar scenario unfold with the addition of a contest jersey?