John John Florence reflects on third WSL title

Not many in the surfing community would have thought John John Florence’s third WSL title would come with a seven-year wait.

Florence won his first title in 2016 as a 23-year-old, then repeated the following year. Since then, injuries have sidetracked multiple competitions, including his time surfing at the Tokyo Olympics.

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Florence won his third WSL title last Friday, concluding an emotional return to the top of the sport.

“There’s so many things that led up to that, like just emotion, I guess the emotional dump,” Florence told KHON2 sports director Rob DeMello. “I think just the past years I think since my last world title, I’ve had a lot of ups and downs and injuries. And I think just trying to come back over and over again after injury and it’s really hard when you come all the way back from an injury and then it happens again and then you try to come all the way back and then happens again.

“And so for me to kind of get back to this point and then after this year or two leading up to this year, it was one of the biggest years I’ve ever had. Starting the year we knew we were going to have our first son, the Olympics, and fully committed to the tour. So I think just after like it being at the end of the year and then ending with this format, with this event of like sitting in the lead, waiting all day for someone to serve up to you. And then it all counts for the world title. Just a testament, a lot of pressure and yeah, it just creates a lot of emotion.”

As for what’s next, speculation has increased as to whether or not Florence will compete in 2025.

“I haven’t put too much thought into it, to be honest, I haven’t made any decisions on anything,” he said. “It’s funny for me, you know, like last year in the middle of the year, I was like, ‘I’m definitely not doing next year.’ And then like, here I am as committed as I’ve ever been. So I could just I kind of just take it in the offseason and just kind of see how I feel. And it’s I feel really good and I want to compete. Then I definitely will. I’m still like, I still love the process and everything that goes into competing. So, yeah, I don’t know. I just kind of just take it as it goes.”