Surfing and Sailing Around the World with John John Florence

0:03Laura Hughes:The visualization stuff got really big for me, but it was never like visualizing what I was doing or how I was surfing. It was more visualizing how I was feeling. I would visualize how I felt walking down to the water, how I felt right before the horn went off. And after practicing it over and over again in my head, it just allowed me space and allowed me to surf how I want to surf.

0:26John John Florence:John John Florence is one of the most talented surfers of all time. After 15 years on the World Surf League Championship Tour, three world titles, and two Olympic appearances, John John recently surprised the surf world when he stepped away from competition. Instead, he decided to pursue a massive wild idea, to sail around the world with his family. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard. I was lucky enough to talk with John John last summer at Outside Days in Denver, Colorado. This time when we spoke, John was at home in Hawaii.

1:10John John Florence:He grew up nearby on the North Shore of Oahu and rode his first wave at just three years old. In 2011, when he was 19, JonJon officially joined the WSL Tour. At first, he wasn't solely focused on competition. But in 2015, he decided to lock in and go after a world championship.

1:34John John Florence:JonJon Florence, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. It's really good to talk to you again. It was so fun to chat with you at the Outside Fest. And now we're back. I love it.

1:43Laura Hughes:Yeah, excited to be back. Thanks for having me.

1:45John John Florence:so I talked to one of your close friends who said Shelby you know if you asked John John in 2015 what his goal was it was to win the world title he got rid of everything else and like laser focused

1:56Laura Hughes:to do this is that right yeah yeah I think 2015 was definitely the year of like I'm on the tour I would love to win a world title that's kind of like since I was a little kid seems like it's been like a goal of mine um I'm gonna like put everything into winning now it was like okay I'm going to be the first one out every morning in the dark. I'm going to be practicing every single day. I'm going to do my mental work. I'm going to start stretching. I'm going to, like, I made all these huge, like, changes. And I just committed to that for the year. And it was crazy. I ended up winning. And it was just a funny thing to, like, take a step and go, whoa, like, when I commit myself in a direction, like, I can really do something.

2:38John John Florence:that's inspiring and not only did you commit yourself but you had to invest in yourself like you had to take your earnings and hire a coach hire trainers maybe a nutritionist like that's a big commitment and then it worked I mean you won it was actually pretty interesting the um

2:55Laura Hughes:so 2016 was like a really good year um definitely like a couple weeks of like borderline depression after of like wait I just accomplished this life goal like now what and then the next year I just like felt relaxed and I had like all this practice of what I had done the year before. And I just kind of went and I surfed and I didn't think about it too much. And then I won at home and that was really cool. And then 2018 came along and I was like at the, before the year started, I was like, I'm not doing the tour. I got to take a couple of years off. Like, I don't know where my mind's at. I don't, I don't really want to be here.

3:31Laura Hughes:And everyone around me is like, what, what are you talking about? You got to go win again. like of course you got to go back on tour and win again and i'm like but i really don't want to and i end up going back on tour um because just listening to what everyone's saying pretty much so that was like the start of the knee injuries i felt as though it was like my body going like we don't want to be here what are we doing you're done so i got this kind of like much needed rest from the tour in a way um 2019 comes along i feel like a lot better i'm like okay like i've like healed my knee feels really good it was one of my best starts to the year and then i was in brazil and i kind of started it's just crazy like how the body works and the mind and everything but i was like starting to feel that again all of a sudden like halfway through the year of just like oh the weight of this like it's really pulling on me like i don't know if i really want to be here again all of a sudden.

4:27Laura Hughes:And then boom, that was when my knee really went, destroyed my ACL.

4:35John John Florence:After John John's injury in 2019, he had to undergo complete knee reconstruction. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of a five-year stretch of serious setbacks, during which he had ACL and MCL surgeries on both knees. Finally, in 2023, after years of procedures and rehab, something shifted.

5:02Laura Hughes:So 2023 came along. I put a lot of effort into training and I was like, I'm done getting hurt. Halfway through the year, again, get to this point of just like, oh my gosh, like, here's that feeling again, halfway through, like, I don't want to be here. Like, I just keep putting myself back in this position. What am I doing? I'm totally done with this. And then I, I remember I went home with that in mind, just took some time to think. And it's amazing when you give yourself a little bit of space, like, like you can think just so much clearer. Um, so I came home and I was like, you know what? I'm not going to quit halfway through the year.

5:39Laura Hughes:If anything, I'm going to finish this year. I'm going to have fun. I'm just going to enjoy it. And I ended up having such a fun time for the second half of the year. Like I just went relaxed. I stopped thinking about it too much and just stopped putting pressure on myself and just started surfing. And that was, it really like inspired me for 2024 to be like, you know what, if I never do the tour again, I'm going to give this like one more full shot. And so when I went into 2024, it was just this, like, I'm going in 100 % committed. And then most of all, I'm going to have a good time and I'm going to have fun and I'm going to enjoy it.

6:12Laura Hughes:And I'm going to relax. and just like with that mindset it just made it so fun the whole year like no matter how much I had on that year with the tour the olympics having a baby it was all these things happening at the same time it was just like nope I'm prepared for this I know what's happening like I'm just gonna take it one step at a time so yeah kind of just all of that like led me into that like final year of just this like ah okay like I'm I'm committed I'm having fun it made it really really special win.

6:45John John Florence:I want to ask you about your recovery from all these injuries.

6:48Laura Hughes:I think anyone who's had the ACL done knows it's just painful and it's hard to get back to where you were and hard to get full mobility and everything. And it just takes a lot of work. And then so after I had done that first one, I had come back to competing and then I did my other knee and it was within a year of being back in the water and I was just devastated. And I knew instantly what had happened. I was like, I know this feeling too well. Like, oh no, this is, it was like, it was horrific. But I kind of just like, I guess I was, had to gotten pretty good at being in that headspace of kind of just pivoting goals from one thing to the next.

7:28Laura Hughes:And so it didn't really matter what I was doing as I was just always taking one step in the direction of getting better at surfing or getting better at healing.

7:36John John Florence:Coming back from an injury, especially when you're at the top of your game, is really, really hard. What are some things you did?

7:43Laura Hughes:I read up on things. I watched videos. I asked people questions. I feel like I'm a really big believer in like the little things really add up. And so I did a lot of little things that like in the moment might not feel like a huge change, but over the long term, I think did a big change. it was wake up um mobility stuff red light first thing during coffee uh breathing meditation stuff i did a lot of meditation stuff just visualizing and relaxing and getting rid of like the stress and just like allowing your body to be in a place of healing is really important as soon as i could get to the next step of moving i'm a person who likes to be active um and so if it was like hey hey, you can walk now.

8:28Laura Hughes:I was like, okay, I'm going on a walk. And then as soon as I could ride a bike, I was like, okay, I'm riding a bike just to get out and get my heart going and get blood flowing and just to do that. And then once I could get in the ocean and just paddle or just swim or whatever it was, I was always trying to like keep moving like that. Hyperbaric was a big one for me. I did hyperbaric twice a day. I had one of those soft chambers and so you have to do it a little more. But I just I did that twice a day. Along with the mobility, the strengthening, the red light, my days were just nonstop.

9:03John John Florence:This is like really good stuff. Because I think people people know you're a high performer, but I don't think people realize like how focused you are. I think a lot of people are like, that guy's just talented, but you work really, really hard at your goals. It's incredibly impressive. So take me a little bit deeper into like, I'm specifically interested in your meditation, breathwork and visualization practice, because that's the stuff that like, all of us could be better at.

9:29Laura Hughes:It was like a big turning point for me in my competitive career, and I guess in life in general. But especially in competing, I was a turning point for me of being like taking a step back and kind of being okay with things happening, you know, and not being so affected by emotion and ups and downs. And I know that's a big thing for me that affects me when I compete. Because I don't know, I feel like I'm pretty emotional, I guess. And I feel like that me personally, I don't do well around a lot of people. And I think that's why I like being focused into one goal, because I can kind of shut everything out and just go and do that in my own little world.

10:10Laura Hughes:So being around events and stuff was tough for me because I just I don't like being around a lot of people. It's simple. Yeah.

10:18John John Florence:And at events, there's a ton of people and a ton of photographers and they all want attention and everyone wants to talk and everyone said,

10:24Laura Hughes:yeah. And so, um, for me, that's just not my favorite thing in the world. And so I kind of had to figure out how to like, and especially if you're losing, like you think what everyone's thinking about you and, um, and you know, that's such an effect. And so once I kind of like went down this road of the mental side of things, it really helped me to just, yeah, like take a step back and not be so affected by every emotion and every thought and everything that was happening. And it allowed me to get to a place for like most of my heats to where I can get down to the water and I can kind of put myself into a place of like, I just need to surf like the best I can.

11:01John John Florence:What advice do you have for people who are injured right now and like have goals, but they're injured?

11:07Laura Hughes:let's see my advice for people with injuries and goals you have to put in the work on recovering you have to do it like i i've met a lot of people that have gone through acl surgeries um since mine and prompted me and like oh i still have pain i still have this and i still have that and and i think a lot of it's from i'm like oh did you go to physio and stuff after and they're like yeah i went one day a week and it's like yeah go you can go one day a week but you got to go home and work every day to get back. It's, I mean, the surgery is an invasive thing. There's a lot going on in there. So I think like the movement side of it coming back, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of work, but it's not forever.

11:52Laura Hughes:You know, it's just those, I think those first six months are super, super important.

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14:11John John Florence:Surfer Jon Jon Florence has been called the people's champ, and for good reason. After taking his third title in the World Surf League Championship Tour in 2024, Jon Jon decided to switch gears. He stepped away from competition to pursue a longtime dream, sailing around the world with his family.

14:34John John Florence:I'm obsessed with sailing. Like, I think that's like every surfer's dream to like sail across the ocean, find remote waves and like surf them. And not only did you do this, like with your brothers, but then you did it with your wife, Lauren, who must be such a badass and your adorable one-year-old Darwin. and taking a one-year-old across an ocean is not an easy decision. I don't know. Maybe you could just talk a little bit about that decision to walk away from the tour. I mean, I know that's just what you decided to do and you're going to do it. You were actually listening to your gut, but also to do it with a one-year-old.

15:09Laura Hughes:Yeah. So when we had really decided on that, I was like, okay, I just took it step by step. I was like, you know what? At first it was like seemed like a really big I was like okay this is gonna be uh a lot like how are we even gonna do this is this the right thing to do is this the right thing to do for him is this the right thing to do for us like uh none of it seemed great and then but I was like you know what we'll go to New Zealand and we'll spend a month getting things together and then we can always adjust We can always make a change if we need to. And yeah, I guess it was just like, I feel very privileged to be able to have the, to be able to make those choices, have those choices, you know, I'm like, but it was, it was cool because like, we're like, okay, we did it.

16:00Laura Hughes:We spent like a month there and we're like, this is actually feeling better. This isn't as bad as we thought.

16:03John John Florence:Like, so you have this, let's talk about the belt. The belt is Vela. Vela? Is that how you say it? Yeah.

16:07Laura Hughes:Vela is the name.

16:08John John Florence:What's Vela mean?

16:10Laura Hughes:velez is i named it after i think it means a couple different things in spanish and portuguese but i named it after a star constellation in the southern hemisphere so velez is a catamaran and