JJF Will Officially Be Taking The 2025 Season Off
He will, however, be back in 2026.
Editor’s note: Two multi surfing world champs and tastemakers have confirmed, on the same day, that they will not be competing on the 2025 WSL Championship Tour. Read about Steph Gilmore here and John Florence below.
At 13 years old — standing 4’11” and weighing 85 pounds — John John Florence became the youngest surfer to ever compete in the Vans Triple Crown.
That was the first culmination of the prophecies of what seemed like a messianic career.
12 and a half years earlier, at six months old, John’s mom Alexandra first surfed with him on the front of her longboard. John began surfing independently at five years old and started to get noticed around town by people like one Kelly Slater, who would “watch out for him” at Pipeline as he began surfing waves that seemed far too advanced for a pre-tween, and Jon Pyzel, who started flowing him free boards despite his family being on government support.
“I couldn’t afford to give [John] boards, but I really felt like it was something I should do. I had a daughter, but I spent that money on some little six year old who surfed good. It was almost laughable how much confidence I had in how good he was and what he was going to become. I didn’t have older team riders that were more established, so it was like, ‘this is my guy.’ And when your guy’s not even 10 years old, it’s kind of silly. I was just always sure of what he was going to do. I was sure of that.”
John surfed his full year on tour in 2012, taking his first career CT win in Brazil.
In 2013, John left O’Neill, his sponsor of 15 years, to hop on surfing’s most lucrative contract of all time ($4M USD per year) with Hurley. You remember those striped wetsuits and 5 Gum-esque commercials, right?
In 2014, at 22 years old, John teased his own retirement in an interview with The Surfer’s Journal. “I want to retire in 10 years,” John said. Hmmm…
In 2015, John released View From A Blue Moon, which still stands as the most expensive surf movie of all time, with a budget of nearly $2M USD. Using RED cameras, 4K resolution, and drone shots that were never-before-seen in a surf film prior (not to mention VO by John C Reilly), View From A Blue Moon stands as one of the most iconic surf movies in surfing”s young history.
In 2016, at the age of 24, the prophecies were fulfilled as John won his first World Title. He won the World Title again in 2017.
In 2018, John’s long run with career-stopping injuries began in Bali. To be fair, he did break his back in 2011 at Pipe, followed by a broken wrist, a broken leg, a broken arm, and a ligament tear. But, the knee injuries that started in 2018 were smack dab in the middle of John’s competitive prime.
He came back in 2019 only to injure his knee again at the Brazil CT event. Even so, he healed enough to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, losing to fellow countryman Kolohe Andino.
In 2020 there was no CT season, and JJF took the time to leave Hurley and start Florence Marine X, which is, by all accounts, still zooming off the proverbial shelves.
The injuries wouldn’t stop though for John. In 2021 he injured his ACL again in Margaret River and had to take the season off. And then again in 2022 he injured his MCL at G-Land and had to withdraw.
In 2023 however John began to crawl his way back, ending the season looking strong-kneed in eighth place.
And then, fatefully, in 2024, at the age of 31, John returned looking stronger than we’d ever seen him before. Not only did he win the World Title in convincing form, he also had a son with his wife, Lauryn Cribb, and won two Stab Surfer Of The Year Awards — Our Male Surfer Of The Year and Stab Edit Of The Year for “Here”.
Today, John confirmed our prediction that he would step away from the Tour in 2025. He explained his decision in the following words:
“I’ve decided to focus on surfing in a different way this year. I want to create the time to explore, find new waves, and draw different lines,” John said. “I intend to compete full-on for another world title in 2026, but 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. I’m stoked to be filming into some new projects and planning to share the amazing places we get to go along the way.”
Enjoy your year off John, if anybody deserves it, it’s you.
Al Cleland Jr. has been named the beneficiary of John’s departure — he will join this year’s rookie class as the Championship Tour’s first-ever full-time Mexican surfer.
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