John John Florence Puts On Statement-Making Show At Pipe Pro
If there was any question about John John Florence’s intentions in 2024, he put them all to rest with his performance today at the Pipe Pro. Dropping the highest scoring heat of the event thus far—a 17.34 total—the two-time world champ’s innate connection with the legendary North Shore reef was on full display as he opened his Round of 32 heat with a 9-point ride at Pipe and ended it with an 8-pointer at Backdoor.
Surfing in his 100th Championship Tour, Florence used the milestone as motivation and to build momentum through the early stages of the event.
You come into the beginning of the year and it’s like everything is restarting and you feel nervous, like you’re a rookie almost, like you’re coming into it for the first time ever, but for whatever reason that gave me a lot of confidence,” Florence explained.
Appearing to be in a very content, happy headspace, Florence went on to explain how he was excited for the year. With the start of a new Championship Tour, the Olympics on the horizon and his first child on the way, he has a lot to look forward in 2024.
“More than anything, I’m excited,” Florence said after his heat. “It’s all good. There’s so much good stuff going on.”
With the heat win, Florence is into the Round of 16, where he’ll face Australia’s Callum Robson, who’s been charging all event and will be a tough opponent for the North Shore hero.
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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.