While a life at sea chasing perfect waves looks glamorous, three-time world champion John John Florence says it comes with its difficulties, too. Photo: John John Florence//Screenshot
For surfers, John John Florence lives the most enviable life: he was born at Pipeline, gifted with other-worldly surfing talent that earned him millions, and now travels the world on a sailboat looking for perfect, un-surfed waves. Who would say no to that hand of cards?
However, there’s a less-glamorous side to spending weeks and months at a time on a sailboat in open-water crossings. In a newly released interview ahead of his “Vela” film premiere in Laguna Beach, California, Florence and his wife, Lauryn, described some of the challenges they’ve faced during their journeys at sea.
Mosquitoes
The host, Jamie Brisick, asked about the blood-sucking insects that were shown in his film. Florence described the annoyance of dealing with a massive mosquito swarm while on the boat with his brothers.
“We were waiting for a wave that we were trying to surf for like a week at this point,” John John said. “It was evening time and we were out in the little tender (a small boat). Me and Nathan are just talking, and we’re going in circles, and then Ivan’s like, ‘What is that?’ And it was, I’m not even joking, like a cloud of mosquitoes.”
Florence laughed that the mosquitoes mostly ended up in their filmer’s room.
“There was a million mosquitoes. It was a nightmare,” he said.
Getting seasick
John John said he doesn’t get seasick, but Lauryn has had issues with adapting to life on a boat. She said it takes her a month to get used to it, but during that month of acclimation, it’s rough.
Picking good weather windows, John John said, is crucial to keeping Lauryn from getting too nauseous.
“That was another thing I found with the patience of it is, on all the crossings and stuff, especially in the beginning, just taking our time and picking weather windows when it’s nice, flat, and easy. And then easing into the trip,” John John said.
Lauryn lauded John John for being understanding and not sailing into rough conditions.
“Happy wife, happy life,” she said.
Living far from medical attention
John John explained that during his travels he began to think about the dangers of living so far from medical care. If he were to ever get hurt surfing on a remote island, help wouldn’t come fast.
“This wave is actually pretty scary,” John John said, pointing to a left slab on the big screen. “It’s so far away from anything. The nearest airstrip was 100 miles away on another island. Then, added on to that, this wave is probably like three miles out from where the boat is anchored.”
“So lately I’ve been thinking about it, and I was like, ‘Okay, that’s pretty scary if something happens because it’s really only us, and then a lot of this time I was surfing by myself and just Eric filming on a soft-top.”
Taking these risks are something John John and Lauryn will assess more critically, they said, especially given that they’re traveling with a toddler.
Sharks
One of the bays where they anchored, the boat was swarmed by 15 to 20 sharks.
But John John wasn’t scared by their presence. To the contrary, he called it “one of the coolest things ever.”
The sharks “are so curious,” John John said. “(They’re) coming up and Darwin’s just sitting there tripping out like a big aquarium essentially.”
