John Florence Drops A Trailer To His New Film, “Tokyo Rising”

For Australian, Brazilian, and American surfers, the road to Olympic qualification was always going to be tough. 

You can’t cheat numbers, and the fact that there were only two slots allocated per country (per gender) meant someone was going to be left out (sorry, Filipe). That said, no one predicted that the showdown for the two U.S. slots would shake out quite as it did. Thankfully, John Florence has been able to turn his 2020 injury and subsequent comeback story into a new film for us all to enjoy.

As per his Instagram, John writes:

“After injuring my knee last summer I didn’t think it would be possible to surf the Pipe Masters five months after surgery, but I decided to make that my goal and give myself every chance to compete in case there was still a possibility to qualify for the Olympics. Hopefully this film inspires people to go after their goals.”

It would be easy to forget the events of early 2019 given the tumultuous 2020 we’ve all been having. As a quick reminder, John got off to an exceptional start, winning two of the first three events before re-injuring his knee in Brazil. With Olympic qualification on the line, John had to surf in the Pipe Masters to hold off Kelly from taking his spot, despite doctors’ orders to the contrary. The fact that arguably the two most famous surfers in the world care this much about the Olympics should indicate that we’re in for a show come 2021.

Lastly, let’s please appreciate the fact that Kelly Slater is somehow still somehow the protagonist in the 2020s. This man’s untethered greatness has now spread across four decades. Not many fans of other sports get to say they’ve seen this level of performance sustained for such a period. So remember to enjoy it while you can. 

Tokyo Rising will release on Amazon Prime video on November 12th. In the meantime, click above to watch the trailer.