John Florence Releases Long-Form Piece On The 243km Great Ocean Squiggle

It took 10 years to build the 243km Great Ocean Road from Torquay to Allansford. It took John Florence roughly a month to demolish several waves along its stretch. In the words of Sam Harris, “it’s a lot faster to make a mess than it takes to clean it up.” 

John writes in his blurb, “We try to always improve with what we are shooting, and how it’s put together when we document our travels. We have been trying to put a lot into these short film projects on the road and we’re excited to keep pushing them further. Australia is so wide open, with a lot of variety in the landscapes. It makes it easy for us to wake up inspired to shoot every day.”

North of 18-minutes, ‘Great Ocean Road’ is one of the longer-form pieces released for free on the Florence YouTube channel. So it’s kind when you consider the work (and $’s) that must go into making these. I wonder if the timing of its release prior to Bells is a subtle flex to show how good he is out there (if you were a paying Florence subscriber you would have seen this last year). John previously rang the bell in 2019. Last season he averaged a 17.13 heat total in the bracket stage of the event before Filipe Toledo put a stick in his spokes. 

Once again, great cinematography courtesy of Erik Knutson – who should consider invoicing the Vic Gov for doing their work for them. Good moments of color between Sally Fitzgibbons upending a beginner (3:33), alpacas and axe-wielding. A couple of waves in here look suspiciously Box-like.

Needless to say, John and Kolohe probably aren’t winning the Turf & Surf competition anytime soon.