John John Florence needs some time to recharge coming off a resurgent year in his professional surfing career.

Florence will miss the 2025 World Surf League Championship Tour while effectively on a sabbatical, the 32-year-old star from Oahu’s North Shore announced on social media on Tuesday, saying he intends to return next year.

What You Need To Know

  • Three-time WSL world champion John John Florence announced Tuesday he has stepped away from the 2025 Championship Tour a week before it was set to begin at the Lexus Pipe Pro

  • Florence, the reigning world champ from Oahu's North Shore, was coming off a resurgent 2024 season in which he won a regular-season event plus the Final, competed in the Olympics and witnessed the birth of his son

  • Florence was granted a wild card entry into the 2026 WSL CT, the organization announced

  • Hawaii's two prominent surfing world champions, Florence and Carissa Moore, have now both stepped away from competition for other life events

He wrote in an Instagram post: “I’ve decided to focus on surfing in a different way this year. I want to create the time to explore, find new waves, and draw different lines. I intend to compete full on for another world title in 2026, but right now this idea of adventure and creatively pushing my surfing as far as possible is really exciting! The ocean is so big and there are so many different types of waves to explore. I’m stoked to be filming into some new projects and planning to share the amazing places we get to go along the way.”

Florence returned to prominence in a huge way in 2024 coming off a seven-year gap since his second world title. In addition to winning the WSL Finals, he claimed the Surf City El Salvador Pro and was runner-up in three other events.

He participated in the 2024 Paris Olympics surfing event at Teahupo’o, Tahiti, in addition to a full CT schedule, and also witnessed the birth of his son, Darwin.

Florence acknowledged a level of stress after he prevailed in his first taste of the WSL’s single-day, staggered-bracket title format.

The WSL said in a news release that Florence has received a 2026 wild card entry to the Championship Tour, as has eight-time women’s champion Stephanie Gilmore of Australia, who announced she is also taking 2025 off.

“Recent years have seen changes in the lives of some of our iconic World Champions as they enter new seasons in their personal lives,” WSL Commissioner Jessi Miley-Dyer said in a statement. “While we miss them during their time away from competition, we’re excited for the doors that open up as a result.”

Florence’s sabbatical and a lengthy injury to Gabriel Medina cleared the way for Maui's Ian Gentil, the 2023 WSL Rookie of the Year, to get bumped up to the CT for at least the first three events of the season.

Two of Hawaii’s most prominent surfing champions are now taking extended time off from the sport. Five-time women’s world champ Carissa Moore stepped down from competitive surfing in 2024, limiting her competition to the Lexus Pipe Pro, the SHISEIDO Tahiti Pro and the Paris Olympics as she prepared to start a family.

The season-opening Lexus Pipe Pro on Oahu’s North Shore is set to begin on Jan. 27.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.