World Champion John John Florence On The Mindset of Elite Sport, Walking Away At His Peak & Why True Mastery Begins With Surrender

It's crazy. Like the heat starts and I just click into this like mode where I'm just like, I'm winning. But at the same time, you are this, you know, North Shore kid who just wants to have fun and pal around with his guys. Competition for me has always been about can I like let go to let myself be able to surf in these moments. You were like so young when you sprung onto the scene and kind of this

hometown hero and with a young mind, like that has to, you know, kind of weigh heavily on you. I lost so much. I I lost every event, first heat, and I was not doing good at all. I kind of went on these couple of just free surf trips at one point and we were filming a bunch and I just remember having so much fun. Everything started clicking for me.

I can have fun like that in competition too. Knowing a direction you want to go, having that goal set, but then just enjoying the process to that. That's the direction I want to go and I'm gonna start here and then I'm just gonna take it step by step. Being okay whether you fail or maybe you end up doing something completely different, but just having a direction and a starting point and taking a step to do it.

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