2x World Champ John John Florence Puts His Name Behind Upcoming Pipe Pro
This offseason from the Championship Tour rumors have swirled that two-time world champion and 2024 Olympic surfer John John Florence was considering stepping away from competition in 2024 to chase waves and explore the world on his sailboat. For the moment the gossip appears all for not as his surf brand Florence Marine X has partnered with fellow surf brand Vissla to co-sponsor the 2024 Pipe Pro.
“I’m really proud to share that @florence_marine_x will be sponsoring the @wsl Pipe event,” Florence shared on his Instagram account.
The Pipe Pro is the first event of the 2024 WSL Championship Tour season and will get underway at the end of January. Growing up on the beach and rising to notoriety at Pipeline, the location is especially near and dear to Florence’s heart. Florence won the Billabong Pipe Masters in 2021 before the event was renamed the Pipe Pro in 2022.
“Pipe has been my backyard and favorite wave for as long as I have been surfing. I’ve grown up watching and dreaming of being in these contests,” Florence continued. “And then one day I was in them, surfing with the same surfers I looked up to as a kid. To be able to support the event now is a dream come true.”
At present, Florence has been enjoying his time away from competition by exploring the verdant coastline of New Zealand, where he’s been surfing, sailing and slowing down a bit. Meanwhile, as this goes to press a large northwest swell is hitting the Hawaiian islands. Stay tuned both fronts as we dive into winter in the islands.
With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.