It appears that John John Florence teleported to Tahiti. Photo: John John Florence//Facebook
Where in the world is John John Florence? Guessing where the three-time world champ will appear next on his global sailing journey is as entertaining as (if not more than) following the current world title race.
Florence and his wife, Lauryn, keep a relatively low profile on social media, so the best glimpses into their life aboard their boat, Vela, come from their YouTube vlogs, which they drop every week or two. In the latest installment, the couple is surfing an undisclosed point break in Central America, having already revealed they are preparing to sail to the Galapagos and cross the Pacific.
But it appears that Surfline’s global web of live cameras captured Florence nearly 5,000 miles from his last known location. The feed at Teahupo’o, Tahiti, showed a regular footer with an eerily familiar stance getting spit out of tubes.
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Poking around the internet at other sailors’ experiences, apparently the trip from Panama to French Polynesia can take anywhere from 30 to 50 days. Is Florence’s vlog that far behind his real-time location?
Lauryn Florence left a cryptic comment on Surfline’s Instagram post, simply tagging her husband with “haha.” Other commenters claimed to have surfed with Florence in Tahiti. Lauryn also posted an Instagram reel in August in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. The evidence is piling up.
We reached out to a trusted source on the ground in Tahiti, who confirmed the rumors are true: John John Florence is in town — a spoiler to the guessing games about where Vela is sailing next.
Even knowing where Florence ended up, that doesn’t mean I’m not equally interested to see what transpired between point A and B. Wondering what waves Florence surfed in the Galapagos and the mysterious Pacific atolls is plenty to keep the imagination churning.
