There is no argument: Steph Gilmore and John Florence are worthy champs. But their absence doesn’t do the sport any good. Photos: WSL
Last Tuesday, within 90 minutes, the surfing world learned that John John Florence and Steph Gilmore wouldn’t be competing in 2025. The timing wasn’t great. The announcements came less than a week before the start of the CT season kicking off at Pipe. Suddenly there was a massive hole where the men’s defending champion, and the women with the most world titles, should have been. Note that John has since been given a wildcard to surf Pipeline this week, but apparently still plans to sit out the rest of the season.
The WSL’s response was sympathetic, to put it mildly. They wished both John and Steph all the best and handed them wildcards to compete in 2026. Have you ever loved someone, but they’ve asked for some space and a more open relationship? Yeah, me too. Well, it was a bit like that.
Their withdrawals have put them and the WSL in a difficult, and unique position. There is perhaps no other sport that sees its biggest stars, and assets, routinely take a non-injury leave of absence. Florence and Gilmore join Toledo and Medina as World Champs who have taken seasons off in recent years. The practice is so entrenched, most surfers now know what a sabbatical is. That was derived from the Biblical practice of shmita, a Jewish practice where workers would take a year-long break from tilling the fields every seven years.
Now John John and Steph, haven’t exactly been working under the hot sun growing sorghum and corn for seven years. Gilmore said she wanted to focus on healing some lingering injuries and redirect her energy toward continuing her adventures of surfing around the globe. Florence said, “he wanted to create the time to explore, find new waves, and draw different lines.”
There is one argument that they absolutely deserve it. Gilmore competed full-time from the age of 17 to 35. The only break she had was after she was viciously attacked with a metal pipe by a schizophrenic homeless person in 2010. She’s won eight world titles, given all her adult life (and a fair whack of her childhood) to the sport, and done it with grace and humility. If she is, as Kelly called her, “God’s gift to surfing,” if she wants to take another year off, who are we, or the WSL, to complain?
John John too could have walked away from the sport long ago. For six years he fought multiple long-term injuries and coped with endless months of surgery, pain and rehab, just so he could compete. His reward for staying on the course was a third world title in 2024. After all that, a year tending bees, sailing boats, and sewing hoods into rashies is the least he deserves.
And yet there is a counterargument that the world’s best surfers setting their schedule on their terms, is undermining the integrity of the sport. Their absence devalues the world titles they have upheld as the pinnacle of the sport. It’s also worth remembering that the current schedule sees surfers having a break from September to the end of January. Last year John surfed 42 heats (the most of any surfer), or just under 24 hours of competition.
Surely there’s enough time to draw different lines, for the other, what, 364 days of the year?
It would be interesting to see the surfers’ response if the WSL decided to withdraw the full-time wildcard status. That would necessitate the surfer’s doing an extra year on the Challenge Series to re-qualify. There’s an inherent risk that surfers would rather walk away for good than compete in two-foot Ballito. It’s a gamble that might deprive surf fans of the world’s best surfers. And be one of the better examples of surfing cutting off its nose to spite its face.
Yet alternatively, the withdrawal of the golden ticket may force the athletes’ hand and have them commit to the Championship Tour full-time, as long they are mentally and physically fit. That’s better for fans, for the sport and for the sponsors that fund the model based on the world’s best surfers actually showing up. That’s the situation that elite tennis and golf players face, and none of their biggest stars have ever taken a year off to sow their wild oats.
Well except Tiger Woods, who was found by paramedics after a car crash outside his home lying in the road, snoring and without shoes or socks, after a night out with a New York nightclub hostess. Even then he only stepped away for four months.
For now, the WSL has chosen to give their best athletes some space, trusting they will return to the warm embrace. Let’s call it the Jonathan Livingstone Seagull approach. “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was”.
My ex sure didn’t, but that’s another story.
