John John Florence surfed a 19.90 heat in France today

After a day in the most solid swell that the Quiksilver Pro, France has seen this year, the gang has been trimmed down to six. With the firs two quarterfinals having been surfer, Gabriel Medina is now out of the event after losing to Josh Kerr. “Gabriel has had an incredible year and it always pushes your surfing to come up against the number one guy,” said Josh afterwards. “I was fortunate to get him in our quarterfinal match in Margaret River and to get another one on him today is great for the confidence heading into the last two events.”

The other quarterfinal saw John John Florence take down Kolohe Andino. Mr Florence looked so very at home in the thumping beachie, and really, the most important thing worth talking about besides Gabs’ elimination, Kelly’s continued presence and what those things mean for the world title race, was the first heat of the day, in which John John posted 19.90 points for seamless, hard-to-fathom tuberiding and huge frontside turns.

“The conditions look amazing but can be all over the place out there,” said John. “I was lucky to find a rhythm in my first heat and seemed to be on all the good ones. Great waves, but you can feel the conditions changing with the onshore winds. My quarterfinals against Kolohe was harder to find scoring waves.”

That’s a heat that you simply must watch on demand. But just to get back to that whole Kelly Slater coming for Gabriel Medina’s title dreams thing for a minute… KS beat Taj Burrow in round five and will now face one of the event’s other form surfers, Jordy Smith, in the quarters. “With Gabriel falling in the quarters, I have an opportunity to carve a few heats into his current lead,” said Kelly. “It’s really on me to make headway now and make it harder for him to clinch in Portugal and hopefully bring it to Portugal. We have two more days to really pick the eyes out of the swell for the last five heats so hopefully we see some good conditions again before the event finishes.”

Indeed. Stay tuned for the call. Heats on demand, here.

And, John’s two scoring waves in round five:

Quiksilver Pro France Round 5 Results:
Heat 1: John John Florence (HAW) 19.90 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 13.16
Heat 2: Josh Kerr (AUS) 7.34 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 6.93
Heat 3: Jadson Andre (BRA) 9.23 def. Filipe Toledo (BRA) 5.33
Heat 4: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.24 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 5.87

Quiksilver Pro France Quarterfinal Results:
QF 1: John John Florence (HAW) 16.00 def. Kolohe Andino (USA) 9.17
QF 2: Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.83 def. Gabriel Medina (BRA) 8.90

Quiksilver Pro France Remaining Quarterfinal Match-Ups:
QF 3: Miguel Pupo (BRA) vs. Jadson Andre (BRA)
QF 4: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Kelly Slater (USA)