Dissecting the World’s First Super Grom    
By Beau Flemister

Getting a few moments to do an interview with John John Florence was both a little difficult and a little not. Difficult, because he’s not making any effort to pencil me in, give me an exact time and date or cater in any way to my schedule. He’s probably had dozens of people like me prodding him every year since he was 10.

“John John, can I get an interview?” we ask.
“John John, can I get a photo?” we plead.
“And how about one with you and your family.
And can we get one with your mom in there too?”
we mutter.

Aarrgh goes the boy with two first names. More media. More photos. He’s a decade deep in the game. But I had to find him. Which, as I mentioned, proved to be the “not difficult” part as all John John does is surf—either out at Pipe or at Ehukai affront his North Shore house. It’s there that I find him after a few calls and cancellations. We were supposed to conduct the interview at his pad at 4:00. It was now 4:30 and he was still surfing. I’m sure he had completely forgotten we’d spoken a few hours earlier. So after surfing myself and then watching him go in, I followed him to his doorstep.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the difficulty I’ve had tracking down The World’s First Super Grom isn’t a shun towards me, but more of a defense mechanism. As the main question to John John in the interview was, “What’s it like to be in the spotlight your whole life?” a certain flakiness…or more so aloofness to all the hype and expectations may be the only way to survive and thrive.

Less than a decade ago John John Florence, now freshly 17 years old, was described as the first “supergrom,” this term attributed to a child of exceptional-to-manlike surfing capabilities, but still well under the age of 12. Supergrom. This was John John. With the look of a longhaired, towheaded baby of some Nordic god, he was already getting tubed at small Pipeline and had guys like Kelly Slater saying he was “the next big thing.”

O’Neill immediately took notice and sponsored him and his whole family. (John’s two younger brothers, Nathan and Ivan, are almost mirror images of him.) Two years later Vans followed suit. And after various photos ran of his pint-sized frame ran in the major international magazines, he graced the cover of the huge Surfer mag annual collector’s edition.
When he was just 12, he competed in the Vans Triple Crown Pipe Masters, the youngest surfer to ever do so. For not being out of elementary school yet, John John was surrounded in the hype and a million people wanting a piece of the Golden Child.

So my question once again stands: How do you deal with that?

“Everyone comes here to Hawai‘i every year, since I was a kid. So I’m used to it. It’s like I really don’t even mind it. It’s helped me out, really. I got sponsors, all these connections to different people and places; it’s not so bad,” says John John. Okay. But I prod him a little further. What about all the expectations from your sponsors, the media? You know there’s expectations. Does that ever get to you, would you ever have it any other way?

“You ignore the hype. You block it out. You have to, or it won’t be fun anymore. At the same time though, you gotta stay humble. If I get too cocky, guys like Nathan [Fletcher], Jamie O’Brien, Bruce Irons, they’ll say something.”

I guess having superheroes like these guys acting as your big brothers wouldn’t be so bad either. But I realized that when it comes down to it, this life of fame and opportunity is the only one that John John knows, the exceptionality of it being totally normal for him, comfortable, really. Why would he want it any other way? But what about the school and all the traveling, that’s gotta wear on a kid, right?

“Homeschool’s not so bad. You do have to get more motivated to do it than regular school, but if I were in highschool, I’d just want to be surfing, so with homeschool I can surf that much more. Yeah, we travel a lot. Last year we were in Cali, Maldives, South Africa, France, England, Spain, Portugal, Indonesia…I was back home for only a month. But even though a lot of the travel is for ’QS events, I always travel with my mom and two brothers, which really just makes it fun like some big family trip. We travel everywhere together.”
Interesting. For even amidst the chaotic jet-set life of a burgeoning professional, this closeness of family seemed so ordinary, a tie seemingly stronger than most “normal” families I’ve ever known. I pause and take a look around the house. An array of North Shore grommets coming in or going out for a surf, perusing the refrigerator, watching surf flicks—a house full of kids being kids—not too abnormal.

“John John, let’s go out again, I’m ready!” shouts a friend.
“Can’t man, I’m in the middle of an interview.”
“Whoooa, sor-ry, superstar!” he apologizes cynically.

John John rolls his eyes, but blushes, a noticeable moment of adolescence showing through his “just business” façade. So then what exactly are his sponsors expectations?
“Basically to just go surf. Do what I’ve always been doing. Yeah, I’m doing the ’QS, and when I turn 18 next year that’ll be top priority if I want to make it to the WCT, which I do.”
This isn’t to say that the just-go-surf demands are all John John delivers. Besides a strong past amateur contest career, he made it through a couple heats in last years Pipe Masters, has won junior pros out at Sunset Beach and placed second at one this year in France. Another thing kids his age lack is his comfort in big surf at locales like Waimea Bay or other O‘ahu outer reefs.

Not every child star or young prodigy or in this case Supergrom can handle the spotlight. Being constantly critiqued, scrutinized, judged against their peers or past phenoms, everyone wanting something from them…even if just a quote. Many crumble under the pressure or inevitably become totally disenchanted with the outcome of their talent. Some, like John John, watched closely since he was 8, rise above it. Maybe ignoring all the wants, but staying true to himself. I think John John could care less what people think or expect of him. He knows that if he keeps “doing what he’s always done,” he’ll stay on the familiar path that’s only proved golden.