John Florence is doing something smart: he’s spending his life doing exactly what he wants to do. In the latest installment of vlogs documenting his travels around the world with his family and friends, the three-time world champion found a wave he called simply, “one perfect little right.”
His journey aboard the Vela, the catamaran he calls home these days, has been an epic one. Through the Panama Canal, over to the Galápagos Islands, Cuba, Bocas del Toro… it’s been a wild ride, full of great waves and, more importantly, great experiences.
Part of the video you see here was shot earlier in the voyage — in and around day 75 — and features a few moments from earlier vlogs. John’s brothers, Nate and Ivan Florence, were aboard the Vela then, but they left and John, his wife, and their son did too. A month later, though, they found their way back and decided to give a certain wave they’d surfed another crack. As it turned out, the juice was worth the squeeze.
“The process of actually getting good waves out here is more complicated than I thought it would be,” John writes. “There’s a learning curve to all of the little things that lead up to it. How much food to stock up on, when does the food shipment come to the little island, timing a weather window with my brothers coming down, not getting dengue, and then sailing to some remote reef in the middle of nowhere with no guarantees and a surf forecast that’s always changing… tides, wind patterns, safe anchorage, all of it. We thought it would be fun to share some of that process and what it looks like. When it does work out, and we’re surfing a perfect little right all on our own, there’s no words for the experience.”
