John Florence’s Guide To Avoiding Summer Crowds

I haven’t heard one person not complaining about crowds this summer.

Holiday destinations, beaches, restaurants, airports, ferries, parks, toilets. Everything, everywhere, overflowing with sweaty bodies scrambling for their brief window of hedonism before returning to their default positions in life for another cycle.

I obviously haven’t had a rendezvous with John John Florence and his family.

Aboard Vela, their 48-foot carbon catamaran, they’ve been doing the opposite of everyone else. Their journey across the globe continues through the Caribbean Sea’s lesser known corners — and in the “offseason”, swell-wise.

Following the recent release of JJF’s first experience at Bocas del Toro, the Florence fam explore one of Panama’s six indigenous comarcas, expose young Darwin to invaluable life experience, and get to know another surfing ecosystem and the local rippers who inhabit it.