ACL vs. Tokyo: Pipeline Edition

John John’s olympic hopes weigh heavily on recovering ACL

This past June, John John Florence launched skyward in a seemingly harmless flyaway backflip during the 2019 Rio Pro. Despite walking up the beach through the short-break on his own behalf, it didn’t take long for us to realize that something serious had happened. At the time, reports on his injury were fickle and unclear. It was not until a few weeks later, curtesy of John’s instagram post, that we would find out that the current World #1’s season was over, having been diagnosed with a ruptured ACL. To say that the surfing world was disappointed would be an understatement. This was nothing short of tragic.

Despite heavy hearts of fans and competitors alike, the competition rolled on. And so did the J-Bay pro. And for a little while, we came to accept this reality that John John was, in fact, human and that there are actually some other surfers on tour who are entertaining to watch (marginally, of course). Then, just five weeks following his instagram announcement, we were hit with another bomb from Florence’s mysterious social media presence. Accompanied with a video of himself paddle boarding near Goat Island, John announced that he was “back in the water #tokyo2020.”

Did he honestly expect us to believe this? Was this just a weird joke? Did someone steal his iPhone 3? This announcement caused quite a stir for, say, a week or so. Nobody took it too seriously. We quickly moved on and went back to our lives watching of Kalohe get beat in late rounds by the Brazilians and Jordy.

Now, it’s winter in Hawai`i and the mood amongst surfers everywhere is electric. The standouts are standing out, the up-and-coming groms are up and they are coming, and the Ho’s are having the most tubular winter on record. Even with John John gone, the internet is completely saturated with Hawaiian highlights (as if we don’t hate our lives on the mainland enough).

Perhaps it’s a way to steal the thunder of Nathan and Ivan during their unforgettable season at Pipe. Maybe it’s an attempt at one last battle with Kelly before his inevitable, yet inconceivable, retirement. Regardless of motif, and regardless of how ACL recovery is supposed to work, John John is back and he’s going to compete in the Pipe Masters (with a knee-brace at least?).

Keller Slater, who just a few days ago seemed like a lock for the second Olympic spot behind Kalohe Andino, must now go head to head with John John in the final event of the year to keep his Olympic hopes alive. For Kelly to qualify, he must place higher than John John, with a quarter-final finish or better.

Let’s take a second to contextualize this scenario for a bit because I am worried that the actual ridiculousness of this situation may get overlooked. Pipeline, the most dangerous wave in the world, will host the battle to determine Olympic qualification between two of the biggest names in modern surfing. But that’s not the whole story. We have the aging Kelly Slater coming off of his worst season in decades, duking it out with John John Florence surfing on half a knee. It’s like some twisted Rocky sequel in a surfing alternate universe. Nobody in their right mind would put money on either surfer given the way they are surfing right now. But because they are competing against each other, all bets are off. The World Title race is tight, but the real entertainment will be watching John and Kelly crawl to the finish line.

All jokes aside (who said I was joking?), this Olympic qualification is clearly meaningful to John John. Despite widespread criticism of surfing in the Olympics, Florence is willing to put his knee, and potentially his career, on the line to represent the United States in Tokyo. As fan’s of competition, his actions can be deemed as honorable, even noble. But as a fan of surfing, John’s decision surf the Pipe Masters leaves us with an ear-ringing anxiety. We have seen it many time before, most recently with Kevin Durant of the Warriors, competing too soon off of serious injuries has ended, if not seriously stunted, athletic careers. And I don’t think there is a single person out there who believes that five months is enough recovery time for a serious ACL injury. For many, John John is the reason we watch these surf contests in the fist place, and the fear of losing him for a few heats in mediocre Olympic surf is almost too much to bear.

But if John John won’t take Joel Tudor’s advice, I don’t think that he’ll take anyone’s. John has made it clear that the decision will be up to him. Be sure to tune in to the 2019 Pipe Masters, headlined by the battle between Old-man Kelly and Broken (but hopefully not too broken) John John.