Caity Simmers And John John Florence Are Your 2024 World Champions Of Surfing

Read our full Finals Day wrap up here.

Not many of us are accustomed to our entire work year being defined by 35 minutes and a fickle ocean.

But then again not all of us own the company that sponsors the event we just won.

John John Florence has been surfing’s most enigmatic outlier since he surfed with Kelly at Pipe at nine years old, won NSSA Nationals at 11, and competed in the Triple Crown at 13. After years of (literal) bumps and bruises in the form of near-career-ending knee injuries, JJF is finally back to fulfilling the prophecies that were predicted about him decades ago.

This World Title comes seven years after John John won back in 2017.

In unexpectedly Kelly Slater In Black And White-esque conditions, John John Florence took out Italo Ferreira in two heats, catching a total of six waves all day compared to Italo’s 45 — joining Tom Curren, Andy Irons, Mick Fanning, and Gabriel Medina in the “Three World Title Club”.

In the end, Italo’s 19 air reverses were dwarfed by the one single John John layback heard-round-the-world.

Here are some quick stats on John’s year:

• The now-3x World Champ is also the only 2024 finalist who has never appeared in the WSL Finals before. This is his first time finishing a season in the Top 5 since his 2017 World Title. He has surfed four Finals this year, his most in a single season since his maiden World Title-winning campaign in 2016.
• John has won the joint-most heats (25) of any surfer this season alongside Griffin Colapinto. 12% of his waves scored have been in the excellent scoring range, the highest ratio of any CTer. He got two perfect 10s this year, and his 14.07 heat average is also the highest on tour.

Now to Caity, our loyal Ladybird who has now fully leaped the coop and defeated the World Champ and Gold Medalist Caroline Marks — and has become the youngest World Champion of all time.

At just 18 years of age, Caity Simmers has already dropped two major surf films, competed in the Olympics, won Rookie Of The Year, and captured the hearts of jaded surfers worldwide.

This is the third time in Women’s surfing history that a surfer has won a World Title within their first two years on Tour (Steph and Carissa did so previously).

Despite Caity’s losing record against Caroline and the fact she lost out to her in Match 2 of last year’s WSL Finals, Caity made noticeable improvements in her make rate and consistency to budge her way past Ms. Marks in the third and final heat of their “Title Match”.

As Julian Wilson recently told us, “Caity Simmers gets it done this year in the women’s side,” said Julian Wilson. “Crazy good in all conditions and she will lock in. Really excited to see her win a world title and I’m sure there will be many more to follow if she wants it.”