Breaking: Jeremy Flores Is Done With Competitive Surfing
The Frenchman’s 15 years on tour will conclude at his favorite wave.
Jeremy Flores was just 18 years old when he joined the ASP World Championship Tour in 2007, making him the youngest-ever male qualifier at that time.
He went on to spend 15 years in surfing’s big leagues, with four event wins, six season top-10s, and 13 baguettes thrown at the judges’ heads to show for it. The Mayor of Hossegor also shut down the streets after his victory there, which is nothing to sneeze at.
Oh yeah, and he’s an Olympian.
As alluded to last week, and at the age of 33, the Reunion-Island-born, French-beach-break-bred surfer known fondly as “Jezza” has announced his intention to retire from competitive surfing following the conclusion of this year’s tour at Teahupo’o. This will be a fitting end for Jeremy, not just because he spends a significant portion of the year in Tahiti, but because Chopes is his favorite wave on tour and the site of a previous victory.
From Jeremy [sic]: I don’t like the word « retiring » because i don’t feel like i’m retiring at all, I’m moving on to the next chapter. I dedicated most of my life to Surfing competition. It’s been a rollercoaster, lots of ups & downs but damn i lived it to the fullest. Some epic moments. I tried to stay real the whole time, maybe too much sometimes ???? But it was all worth it ! If someone told me, when I was a kid, the success, the life i would have, I wouldn’t of believed it. Because of professional surfing i am now lucky enough to live a happy life & provide for my whole family.
High level sports is no joke, there is a lot of things people don’t see behind the scene, it’s intense, it takes so much energy. Since I became a father my priority totally changed, I want to be 100% there for my family. The last few years I haven’t been putting enough effort to be my best version of an athlete. I didn’t have that fire anymore. It was getting hard to keep up with the new generation who are training so freaking hard ????
Anyways, thank you to everyone who believed in me since day 1 & the one who didn’t because it made me who I am.
I’m frothing to work on new projects, surf trips with my friends. Try to send a positive message out there the best way I can.
Big thank you to all my brothers & sisters who I got to spend time with on tour along the years, Love you guys !
Thank you to @quiksilver who been having my back for 24 years, for giving me the opportunity when i was just a kid to make my dream possible.
And of course thank you to my family for keeping up with me all these years. I’ve always had the best support. I’m excited for the future. Love you
Currently 25th in the CT rankings, it’s likely that Jeremy could earn the required results in Mexico and Tahiti to extend his career further. But Mr. Flores has never been one to just go with the flow. He is the flow. Guy has straight lava in his veins, and he’ll be damned if he fades to black.
Our guess? He makes the semis at Teahupo’o, loses with 16 points a la Taj Burrow at Cloudbreak, and goes on to become most local local of all time.
Take a bow, Jeremy. You’ve earned it.
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