John John Florence is one of the most accomplished surfers in the world. After a 15 year career on the World Surf League Championship Tour, three world titles, and two Olympic appearances, he stepped away from competition to pursue a new wild idea: sailing around the world with his family.
John John Florence is one of the most accomplished surfers in the world. After a 15 year career on the World Surf League Championship Tour, three world titles, and two Olympic appearances, he stepped away from competition to pursue a new wild idea: sailing around the world with his family.
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John John Florence:
The visualization stuff got really big for me, but it was never visualizing what I was doing or how I was surfing. It was more visualizing how I was feeling. I would visualize how I felt walking down to the water, how I felt right before the horn went off. And after practicing it over and over again in my head, it just allowed me space and allowed me to surf how I want to surf.
Shelby Stanger:
John John Florence is one of the most talented surfers of all time. After 15 years on the World Surf League Championship tour, three world titles and two Olympic appearances, John John recently surprised the surf world when he stepped away from competition. Instead, he decided to pursue a massive wild idea: to sail around the world with his family. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard.
I was lucky enough to talk with John John last summer at Outside Days in Denver, Colorado. This time when we spoke, John was at home in Hawaii. He grew up nearby in the North Shore of Oahu and rode his first wave at just three years old. In 2011 when he was 19, John John officially joined the WSL Tour. At first, he wasn't solely focused on competition, but in 2015, he decided to lock in and go after a world championship.
John John Florence, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. It's really good to talk to you again. It was so fun to chat with you at the Outside Fest and now we're back. I love it.
John John Florence:
Yeah. Excited to be back. Thanks for having me.
Shelby Stanger:
So I talked to one of your close friends who said, "Shelby, if you asked John John in 2015 what his goal was, it was to win the world title and he got rid of everything else and laser focused to do this." Is that right?
John John Florence:
Yeah. Yeah. I think 2015 was definitely the year of I'm on the tour. I would love to win a world title. That's kind of like since I was a little kid seems like it's been a goal of mine. I'm going to put everything into winning now. It was like, okay, I'm going to be the first one out every morning in the dark. I'm going to be practicing every single day. I'm going to do my mental work. I'm going to start stretching. I made all these huge changes and I just committed to that for the year. And it was crazy. I ended up winning. It was just a funny thing to take a step and go, "Whoa." When I commit myself in a direction, I can really do something.
Shelby Stanger:
That's inspiring. And not only did you commit yourself, but you had to invest in yourself. You had to take your earnings and hire a coach, hire trainers, maybe a nutritionist. That's a big commitment. And then it worked. I mean, you won.
John John Florence:
It was actually pretty interesting. So 2016 was a really good year. Definitely a couple weeks of borderline depression after of like, "Wait, I just accomplished this life goal. Now what?" And then the next year I just felt relaxed and I had all this practice of what I had done the year before. And I just went and I surfed, and I didn't think about it too much. And then I won at home and that was really cool.
And then 2018 came along and I was like... Before the year started, I was like, "I'm not doing the tour. I got to take a couple years off. I don't know where my mind's at. I don't really want to be here." And everyone around me is like, "What? What are you talking about? You got to go win again. Of course, you got to go back on tour and win again." And I'm like, "But I really don't want to."
And I ended up going back on tour because just listening to what everyone's saying pretty much. So that was the start of the knee injuries. I felt as though it was my body going like, "We don't want to be here. What are we doing? You're done." So I got this much needed rest from the tour in a way. 2019 comes along. I feel like a lot better. I'm like, "Okay, I've healed. My knee feels really good."
It was one of my best starts to the year. And then I was in Brazil and I started... It's just crazy how the body works and the mind and everything, but I was starting to feel that again all of a sudden halfway through the year of just like, "Oh, the weight of this, it's really pulling on me. I don't know if I really want to be here again," all of a sudden. And then boom, that was when my knee really went, destroyed my ACL.
Shelby Stanger:
After John John's injury in 2019, he had to undergo complete knee reconstruction. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of a five-year stretch of serious setbacks during which he had ACL and MCL surgeries on both knees. Finally, in 2023, after years of procedures and rehab, something shifted.
John John Florence:
So 2023 came along. I put a lot of effort into training and I was like, "I'm done getting hurt." Halfway through the year, again, get to this point of just like, "Oh my gosh, here's that feeling again halfway through. I don't want to be here. I just keep putting myself back in this position. What am I doing? I'm totally done with this." And then I remember I went home with that in mind, just took some time to think.
And it's amazing when you give yourself a little bit of space, you can think just so much clearer. So I came home and I was like, "You know what? I'm not going to quit halfway through the year. If anything, I'm going to finish this year. I'm going to have fun. I'm just going to enjoy it." And I ended up having such a fun time for the second half of the year. I just went relaxed.
I stopped thinking about it too much and just stopped putting pressure on myself and just started surfing. And that was what really inspired me for 2024 to be like, "You know what? If I never do the tour again, I'm going to give this one more full shot." And so when I went into 2024, it was just this, "I'm going in 100% committed. And then most of all, I'm going to have a good time. And I'm going to have fun, and I'm going to enjoy it, and I'm going to relax."
And just with that mindset, it just made it so fun the whole year. No matter how much I had on that year with the tour, the Olympics, having a baby, all these things happening at the same time, it was just like, "Nope, I'm prepared for this. I know what's happening. I'm just going to take it one step at a time." So yeah, just all of that led me into that final year of just this, "Ah, okay, I'm committed. I'm having fun." It made it a really, really special win.
Shelby Stanger:
I want to ask you about your recovery from all these injuries.
John John Florence:
I think anyone who's had the ACL done knows it's just a painful and it's hard to get back to where you were and hard to get full mobility and everything, and it just takes a lot of work. And then so after I had done that first one, I had come back to competing and then I did my other knee. And it was within a year of being back in the water and I was just devastated. And I knew instantly what had happened.
I was like, "I know this feeling too well. Oh no." It was horrific. I guess I had to gotten pretty good at being in that head space of just pivoting goals from one thing to the next. And so it didn't really matter what I was doing. I was just always taking one step in the direction of getting better at surfing or getting better at healing.
Shelby Stanger:
Coming back from an injury, especially when you're at the top of your game, is really, really hard. What are some things you did?
John John Florence:
I read up on things. I watched videos. I asked people questions. I feel like I'm a really big believer in the little things really add up. And so I did a lot of little things that in the moment might not feel like a huge change, but over the long term I think did a big change. It was wake up, mobility stuff, red light first thing during coffee, breathing, meditation stuff. I did a lot of meditation stuff, just visualizing and relaxing, getting rid of the stress and just allowing your body to be in a place of healing is really important.
As soon as I could get to the next step of moving, I'm a person who likes to be active. And so if it was like, hey, you can walk now, I was like, okay, I'm going on a walk. And then as soon as I could ride a bike, I was like, okay, I'm riding a bike just to get out and get my heart going and get blood flowing and just to do that. And then once I could get in the ocean and just paddle or just swim or whatever it was, I was always trying to keep moving like that. Hyperbaric was a big one for me.
I did hyperbaric twice a day. I had one of those soft chambers, and so you have to do it a little bit more. So I did that twice a day, along with the mobility, the strengthening, the red light. And my days were just nonstop.
Shelby Stanger:
This is really good stuff because I think people know you're a high performer, but I don't think people realize how focused you are. I think a lot of people are like, "That guy's just talented," but you work really, really hard at your goals. It's incredibly impressive. So take me a little bit deeper into... I'm specifically interested in your meditation, breathwork, and visualization practice, because that's the stuff that all of us could be better at.
John John Florence:
It was a big turning point for me in my competitive career and I guess in life in general, but especially in competing, it was a turning point for me of taking a step back and being okay with things happening and not being so affected by emotion and ups and downs. I know that's a big thing for me that affects me when I compete because, I don't know, I feel like I'm pretty emotional, I guess.
And I feel like that me personally, I don't do well around a lot of people. And I think that's why I like being focused into one goal because I can shut everything out and just go and do that in my own little world. So being around events and stuff was tough for me because I don't like being around a lot of people. Plain and simple.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah. And at events, there's a ton of people and a ton of photographers and they all want your autograph.
John John Florence:
Ton of attention and everyone wants to talk. Yeah. And so for me, that's just not my favorite thing in the world. And so I had to figure out how to... And especially if you're losing, you think what everyone's thinking about you and that's such an effect.
And so once I went down this road of the mental side of things, it really helped me to just take a step back and not be so affected by every emotion and every thought and everything that was happening. And it allowed me to get to a place for most of my heats to where I can get down to the water and I can put myself into a place of like, "Ha, I just need to surf the best I can."
Shelby Stanger:
What advice do you have for people who are injured right now and have goals, but they're injured?
John John Florence:
Let's see. My advice for people with injuries and goals, you have to put in the work on recovering. You have to do it. I've met a lot of people that have gone through ACL surgeries since mine and have come up to me and like, "Oh, I still have pain and I still have this and I still have that. " And I think a lot of it's from... I'm like, "Oh, did you go to physio and stuff after?" And they're like, "Yeah, I went one day a week."
And it's like, yeah, you can go one day a week, but you got to go home and work every day to get back. I mean, surgery's an invasive thing. There's a lot going on in there. So I think the movement side of it coming back, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of work, but it's not forever. I think those first six months are super, super important.
Shelby Stanger:
Surfer John John Florence has been called the People's Champ, and for good reason. After taking his third title in the World Surf League Championship Tour in 2024, John John decided to switch gears. He stepped away from competition to pursue a longtime dream, sailing around the world with his family.
I'm obsessed with sailing. I think that's every surfer's dream to sail across the ocean, find remote waves and surf them. And not only did you do this with your brothers, but then you did it with your wife, Lauren, who must be such a badass, and you're adorable one-year-old, Darwin. And taking a one-year-old across an ocean is not an easy decision. I don't know. Maybe you could just talk a little bit about that decision to walk away from the tour. I mean, I know that's just what you had decided to do and you were going to do it. You were actually listening to your gut, but also to do it with a one-year-old.
John John Florence:
Yeah. So when we had really decided on that, I was like, okay, I just took it step by step. I was like, "You know what?" At first, it seemed like a really big... I was like, "Okay, this is going to be a lot. How are we even going to do this? Is this the right thing to do? Is this the right thing to do for him? Is this the right thing to do for us?" None of it seemed great.
But I was like, "You know what? We'll go to New Zealand and we'll spend a month getting things together and then we can always adjust. We can always make a change if we need to." And yeah, I guess it was just like, I feel very privileged to be able to make those choices, have those choices, but it was cool because we're like, okay, we spent a month there and we're like, "This is actually feeling better. This isn't as bad as we thought."
Shelby Stanger:
So you have this... Let's talk about the boat Vela. Vela? Is that how you say it?
John John Florence:
Yeah, Vela is the name.
Shelby Stanger:
What's Vela mean?
John John Florence:
I named it after... I think it means a couple different things. It's Spanish and Portuguese, but I named it after a star constellation in the Southern Hemisphere.
Shelby Stanger:
So Vela is a catamaran and you've put nets around it so the kid - Darwin's not going to fall overboard.
John John Florence:
Yeah. The way our catamaran is designed to is there's a center area in it where there's kitchen, little mini living room. It's small. It's really tiny when you're on there. But then the way it's set up is there's a little back deck too, but it's all kind of closed in. You can't get out of that area. You can go back deck kitchen area. And so when we netted off the ends of that, it's pretty secure.
When you go up on deck, onto the forward area and the sides, then we have lifelines and we netted those as well, but then the front is open. So whenever we were up on deck, we had to be 100% on him. And then when we're down low, it's really, really secure. And so we felt a lot better once we were doing it and we're like, okay, this is much more manageable. It was definitely funny.
When we first got on the boat, he wasn't walking yet. And then within the month he was running around and we were like, "Whoa, okay, he's really quick now." But it's funny because a boat is babyproofed in a way already almost. All the corners are rounded edges, all the cabinets are push button to open things because it's a boat and everything's moving. Everything's pretty solid.
Everything can be wiped and washed down. It almost was easier than being here at home in a way, except for some of the things that you don't have sometimes. But we ended up being like, "Whoa, this is pretty cool."
Shelby Stanger:
Can you tell us about some of the most magical spots you guys went to? I mean, if anybody hasn't seen John John's Instagram, go on his Instagram, watch the videos of them sailing with Little Darwin and stopping in these amazing Fijian villages and hanging out with village kids. It's adorable.
John John Florence:
Yeah. So we started New Zealand, then we went up to Fiji. We spent a lot more time in Fiji than we though we were going to do. We went everywhere in Fiji. And I think we spent five months there. And then we went from Fiji to Vanuatu, which is just above New Caledonia. And then we went from there to Australia. And Fiji had some of the most beautiful picturesque places that I've ever seen in my life.
It was a lot of work in the beginning of the year. We had a lot of weather, so it was definitely like... My Instagram probably looks like it's really pretty and sunny and beautiful all the time, but there was a lot of moments where we're in some little islands out in the far edge of Fiji and then a big storm coming through in the next couple days and literally taking the boat and tying up to these big rock walls. Does this feel good?
Is the wind going to come around here tonight? Oh, it doesn't feel good. I think the wind's starting from there. And then moving to another section and trying to just find little nooks and stuff to hide from weather. And so there was a lot of that. And I kind of was really patient with the weather and I got a lot better out of it through the trip with the family on board. I tried to pick when we were doing longer crossings to do it with a lot mellower weather.
And I think a lot of that made the trip much more enjoyable rather than forcing the issue. Rather than when I had my brothers on the boat, they're like, "We want waves." And I'm like, "Okay, we got to go there and it's really windy. And do you really want to go there?" "Yeah, we want to go. " I'm like, okay, and then it's miserable for three days.
Shelby Stanger:
Any harrowing moments or stories you can tell where there's seasickness, huge waves?
John John Florence:
Yeah, all of the above. Our crossing from New Zealand was just the most wind and big waves that I've had on the boat and just really, really terrifying. I don't know.
Shelby Stanger:
You're telling me that you're terrified. You've surfed and won the Eddie, which is the big wave of it.
John John Florence:
Yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
So how big are these big waves?
John John Florence:
But it's so different because...
Shelby Stanger:
And not Hawaiian style. Tell me in California wave measurement. What would it have been?
John John Florence:
It's really hard because you're an open ocean. Our boat is, I don't know, it's 48 feet. I don't know, big enough that the boat is dropping into the waves. You're literally...
Shelby Stanger:
So over 48 feet?
John John Florence:
No, I wouldn't say... That was probably the swell itself. It was 20 foot, these 20 foot swells.
Shelby Stanger:
Terrifying.
John John Florence:
Terrifying, but enough to where you're in the middle of the night and it's dark and you can't see anything. And the boat has an autopilot for steering. You have very small sails up, barely any sails up, and it's so windy. And the whole boat is like you're going and then you just feel the bow drop down and you're like, "Oh gosh, here we go." And it's just... And then into the next one...
Shelby Stanger:
That sounds like a rollercoaster that you do not want to be on.
John John Florence:
A rollercoaster in the dark. I don't know. I guess the scary thing is that you're so committed. You're still 500 miles from land and you just know it's not getting any better for the next 12 to 15 hours or whatever it is. And you're just like, okay, it just got dark. We have another 10 hours until it gets light. This is going to be a long night.
Shelby Stanger:
And there's no one who can rescue you. You are in the middle of the ocean.
John John Florence:
Yeah, you're out there in the middle of the ocean and you're just trying to do your best to not break things and just keep the boat upright and just keep going in a straight line. I don't know. I'm learning so much still. And I mean, there's people that have sailed 200,000 miles around the world four times, done these races where they're going four times as fast as we are.
And I just can't imagine the mental state that you have to be in, and the guy's doing it solo too, because it's not only like... I mean, there's tons of debris in the ocean. You don't know what you're going to hit in the middle of the night when you're going 20 knots down a wave. And if you do hit something, it's going to be catastrophic. It's going to be game over.
I don't know, there's a lot that goes into it, but it just goes back into those moments of breathing and going, "Ah, okay, I'm all good right now in this moment. This is the moment and I'm good right now. So we'll just go into the next moment, into the next moment, into the next one." And for me, it's really scary. For some other people, they might be used to that, but I'm definitely terrified.
Shelby Stanger:
I think anybody would be terrified. Some of the nature that you saw out there, can you describe it to me, whether it was a waterfall in Fiji?
John John Florence:
Yeah. So when we were sailing to Australia from Vanuatu, we were passing through... Forget one of the reefs, what they were called though. It was in the middle of the night and I was sitting there on my night watch and I hear this loud pitch noise. And I was like, "What is that?" It sounds like whistling. And I was like, it's so weird. It's kind of eerie. We're not going super fast. The wind wasn't super strong.
And I was like, "That is so weird." And then I was like, "Oh my God, I think it's dolphins or whales." And I go outside on the net and I look and the water is just glowing, phosphorescence just glowing and huge dolphins that you can see. I don't know, they're really big ones. And because they're moving, all the phosphorescents is glowing around them and you can see their glow.
It seems fake, but it's like... And I ran down and I got my brother Ivan up and I was like, "You've got to come see this." And we're just in the middle of the ocean out there just tripping out for, I don't know, the dolphins to hang around for 20 minutes. And there's just stars and it just doesn't seem real. You don't see that stuff. There was a lot of stuff like that in the middle of the night and you're just like, "This is surreal. It seems fake."
Shelby Stanger:
Anything else you want to share about your sailing adventures? Because I know you did so many cool things and the people you met along the way and introduced Darwin to.
John John Florence:
Yeah, that was one of the coolest things I think, and I think something that I hadn't anticipated making it so special was just going to these places. And a lot of the things that you wouldn't think of that are literally right there on the beach where you're anchored, if we didn't have Darwin yet, you wouldn't have thought about. And so there could be a little wave.
And the one place we were anchored had the most amazing, perfect little mini wave and Lauren would longboard it. And then I would sit on this... We had this big inflatable sup that was epic for riding waves with him and just surf it for hours. And it was just the coolest thing in the world. So there was a lot of that. And then you go into the village just wherever you are and the kids just love other kids.
We'd literally just go to the beach and then that'd be like Lauren and I's time off with the baby. It would be like, okay, he would just go run with the kids back and forth on the beach and they would just all play together for hours. And you'd just be sitting there just like, "Ah, this is nice. This is relaxing."
Shelby Stanger:
Built in babysitting in these little villages.
John John Florence:
Yeah, it's amazing. And just how friendly the people are and helpful and they just live very simple lives and they're some of the happiest people that you've seen in the entire world.
Shelby Stanger:
Would they know you? Would you get recognized?
John John Florence:
Yeah, sometimes.
Shelby Stanger:
How interesting.
John John Florence:
Yeah, like in the middle of nowhere.
Shelby Stanger:
What a trip. That is really cool. I mean, that probably must have been fun to be recognized there.
John John Florence:
It was really fun. It was just more excitement to go surfing, and I loved that. And it was like, yeah, they just loved surfing for surfing.
Shelby Stanger:
What about advice to people who want to go after a wild idea that might not make sense on paper?
John John Florence:
I think it's trusting your gut and then taking one step in that direction. And I feel like I've read that or heard that a lot, but that first step is always the hardest. But then I swear, just as soon as you take that first step of just going in that direction, there's always going to be a point for an adjustment or a change. But I feel like as soon as you take a step in that direction, then you're on the path to figuring out if it works or not.
Shelby Stanger:
When we spoke, John John hadn't decided if he would be going back to the tour officially. Since then, he's announced that rather than returning to competition, he's going to continue sailing around the world with his family, chasing remote waves in far off destinations. If you want to keep up with him on his adventures, find him on Instagram @john_john_florence. That's J-O-H-N underscore J-O-H-N underscore F-L-O-R-E-N-C-E.
He also has a new YouTube series titled Vela, presented by Yeti, about his sailing adventures. We'll include the link to watch in our show notes. John John also has a brand he's created with his brothers called Florence, which is now available at REI and at REI.com.
As I mentioned earlier, we spoke to John John in person last year at the music and outdoors festival Outside Days in Colorado. We're heading back there this year and you're invited. Come hear conversations like this one in person and see your favorite brands, athletes, and musical acts live. You'll find more info in the link for tickets in our show notes.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. Thanks again to our partner Capital One and the REI Co-op Mastercard. As always, we love it when you follow the show, take time to rate it, and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.