Johanne usually has a smile on her face but is as competitive as any surfer on tour. And as talented. Brent Bielmann//World Surf League
For a long time, it’s almost as if Johanne Defay has been hiding in plain sight. Now that might be a harsh statement. After all, except for an injury-affected 2023, the Reunion Island surfer has finished in the top 10 every year on the Championship Tour since qualifying in 2014. She made the WSL Finals in 2021 and 2022, finishing fourth and third, and will make her second Olympic appearance at Teahupo’o later this year.
In March this year she claimed a sixth career CT win in Portugal and then immediately backed it up with a Final at Bells. And yet despite the incredible consistency and regular bursts of brilliance, it’s arguable that Defay hasn’t had the recognition her surfing, and her contribution, deserve. She seems to have fallen into the shaded space between the trio of Steph Gilmore, Carissa Moore and Tyler Wright (who between them have claimed every title since 2007 until Caroline Marks stopped that streak last year), and the next generation of female surf stars, led by the progressive surfing of Caitlin Simmers and Molly Picklum.
The so-called surf experts, and many surf fans have rarely labelled the 30-year-old as a bonafide world title contender. That seems faintly ludicrous, given she is the current World No.2, and has twice been just a few heats away from becoming France’s, and Europe’s, first world champion. Given that both Moore and Gilmore are out of the picture for 2024, it might be that her experience is the key difference-maker if and when she comes up against the next-gen at Trestles.
Her considerable achievements should also be even more celebrated given the significant obstacles she has overcome to achieve her goals. Defay qualified for the CT in 2014, the year after surfing was banned at her home of Reunion Island. She crowdfunded her QS campaign season due to a lack of sponsors and received assistance from countryman Jeremy Flores during her first years on tour.
Between 2011 and 2013 the French territory of Reunion Island located in the Indian Ocean, bordered to the west by Madagascar and to the northeast by Mauritius, recorded more than a dozen shark attacks with six fatalities. Given the loss of life on an island with a population of less than one million, the local administration banned surfing at the island’s famous waves such as St Leu, and near Defay’s home of Etang-Salé
“All those that died from a shark attack were from our small surf community. The last decade has been traumatic,” Defay said. “The last one to date was the son of my mum’s best friend, so I knew him so well. It was a devastating time.”
Johanne Defy during a remarkable run in Australia in 2021. Photo: WSL
That attacks ripped apart the close surf community, of which Johanne was a key flag bearer, and the ban lasted a decade. For a professional athlete, it was a truly unique experience. The sporting comparison would be if an emerging, once-in-a-generation tennis player in France suddenly was denied access to all the tennis courts in the country. Or an aspiring Olympic diver turned up to training, only to find all the diving boards removed.
While Defay spent more time in Hossegor after the ban (she was born in France, but moved to Reunion when she was two), she never left her base at Reunion Island. In between events she wouldn’t surf, and it wasn’t until she rocked up to the next stop that she’d get her feet back in the wax. It was far from ideal, but the positive Defay made it work.
She said the lack of time in the water at home gave her even more incentive to surf when she traveled. She also developed her love of hiking, trail running, yoga and cycling during the breaks and has a reputation as one of the fittest athletes on tour. Until last year, she’d never missed an event due to an injury.
Her CT wins at Huntington Beach, Fiji, Uluwatu, Surf Ranch, G-Land and Supertubes, show that she has the mix of progression and power to beat the best in every type of wave. Now 30, she is invariably described as a tour veteran, and after the cut only Tyler Wright has had more CT seasons than Defay. Yet she is surfing as well as at any stage in her career. In an Olympic season, 2024 might be the year that the smiling assassin finally records a massive win that her surfing warrants. No surfer would deserve it more.
