Surfboard Talk With Newly Minted Pipe Master John John Florence
Two-time world champ and Olympic surfer John John Florence has been working with his North Shore-based surfboard shaper for most of Florence's life. Together they've created a unqiue friendship and working relationship that has produced iconic surfboard designs like their "Ghost," "Shadow" and "Red Tiger" models.
Armed with a quiver of fresh Pyzel shapes, Florence just took out the Vans Pipe Masters, setting himself up for some positive momentum as he heads into the 2024 WSL Championship Tour season and the Olympics at Teahupo'o in July. Along the way, Florence and Pyzel hoped across the Pacific to suss out the surfboard factory in Oceanside, California.
"We've created a pretty cool relationship building these boards. I know how to give my feedback and my feel of what I like in a board and he's really good at articulating that and then creating the shape from that," Florence explains.
Of course, the surfer/shaper relationship is a complex one as surfers most often talk in terms of who a board feels, while shapers have to translate that into data points and apply that to the construction of the board.
"It's pretty funny," laughs Florence about the process. "I like it because it's hard when you're creating a product and you can't be open and truthful to the people that you're working with."
More than 20 years into their relationship and Florence and Pyzel appear as tight as they've ever been. It's going to be fun to see where they take things in 2024.
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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.