Like anyone on the WCT, Jeremy Flores has had his ups and downs. At only 18 years old, he was the youngest surfer to be competing on tour. He had a number of outstanding results in his professional career, including a win in 2010 at arguably the most prestigious event of the year, the Billabong Pipe Masters. But after a streak of bad results, being suspended by the WSL for “verbally assaulting” the judges at J-Bay last year, and the bad publicity gained after his little scuffle at Burleigh Heads, Jeremy simply got burned out. “I felt like a machine,” Flores explained. He seemed to have lost that special weapon that got him on tour in the first place.
However, it is always darkest just before dawn. Desillusion Magazine followed Jeremy during his forced holiday break in Tahiti, where Please Stay Positive was conceived. It provides a firsthand account of Jeremy’s life quarrels, and, most interestingly, how he was able to transcend from a state of depression to a state of ascendancy. His results toward the later half of the 2014 WCT and his free surfs around the Gold Coast this year speak to the notion that we are seeing a new and improved Jeremy. The Jeremy who finished 8th his first year on tour and the Jeremy who defeated 10-time (in 2010) World Champion Kelly Slater at the Billabong Pipe Masters. Expect nothing short of an explosive heat in Round 2, when Jeremy will be going toe-to-toe with Kolohe Andino (who has been on an absolute terror this year).
Please stay positive – Jeremy Flores from Desillusion Magazine on Vimeo.
