Here’s What 3X World Champion John John Florence Rode To Win the WSL Finals at Lower Trestles

Last Friday, John John Florence cleaved his third wave of the day in two. A few turns later, he celebrated with an emphatic double fist pump, a rare display of emotion from a normally stoic competitive surfer.

Jon Pyzel, John John’s lifelong shaper, watched from shore. The two have worked on countless boards together since John was a wee five-year-old, from Pipeline steups to Ehuki grovelers. But the board John beat Italo Ferreira on in two heats at the 2024 WSL Finals was a culmination of everything the two knew about high-performance surfing in less than stellar conditions (relative to their North Shore testing ground.

We rang Pyzel to get his take on the day, why his 31-year-old team rider was considered an underdog in the event, and to learn about the board John wielded so easily over the cobblestones: the Red Tiger. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

SURFER: What’s the origin story of the Red Tiger?

Jon Pyzel: The most important part of the Red Tiger’s story is that when we started working on the design it was literally about what just happened in mind. John didn’t say, “What about if I’m going to win a world title at Trestles?” But he was like, “At the end of the year, I want something that works well at Trestles.” The whole design was focused on that, exactly the waves he was riding.

It’s funny with the board he rode. I flew over to my California factory in Oceanside on Wednesday. On Thursday, he called me and asked if there were any boards over here that he left a few weeks before. He had tried some different boards, just a couple different boards. And he called and asked about a 6’ Red Tiger that he returned. So we looked through and found it. He’d already signed them and given them back, like not going to ride them anymore. He had brought these newer versions of the Red Tiger, one for when it’s pumping and a small wave carbon board for when it’s small. He said he didn’t ride any in-between boards, so he wanted this thing.

I drove it up to him in San Clemente at 10 in the morning on Thursday. Didn’t think anything of it, and didn’t even realize he was riding that board before the heat. When he came in from the first heat, I was like wow, he’s riding that board. It had just been in our factory, just hanging out. He surfed Uppers the morning of the contests, so he must have rode that board.

Were there any different designs in the Red Tiger model John rode?

Whenever I’m developing models with John, the stock versus his is the same board. I might do tiny little things, like make the rail a hair thinner, but the overall design is the same. However, his dimensions aren’t stock dimensions. Generally, you want to make stock boards for the middle, to hit the widest range of surfers. With the Red Tiger, we also have a Red Tiger XL, which is thicker and wider.

So he rode the basic Red Tiger. When I develop things, I try to give people what we’re making for our team riders. We’ll make little tiny changes, but nothing significant. John’s board was 6’ x 19.13” x 2.51” by 30.76 liters and made in our Oceanside factory.

This is a high-performance board for small-medium waves. What makes it go?

I had previously made John this 5’6” stubby board called the White Tiger. It had exaggerated bottom contours and single-double concave rolling into a vee-tail. It’s called spiral vee. He loved that board in small waves. Then he wanted to take it and turn it into a shortboard he could ride into a contest. So it took it and we had probably seven versions of that board before we ended up with the distilled product.

It’s a flatter tail rocker, but it has vee through the tail which is pretty abnormal for high-performance shortboards these days. If you look at most pointy thrusters, they are concave in the tail or flat. This whole bottom has a single concave with a double concave inside of it, so it kinda splits the bottom in half, which helps it roll rail to rail easily. The vee through the tail, if you can visualize it, it’s like adding rocker to the outline. The centerline rocker gives you a lot of speed and carries it, but having the vee in the tail lets it tip on the rail easily with tighter radius turns. The whole point of the board was to have him flow through turns without having to pump. If you watch his surfing on these boards, he does a big turn then sits on the bottom before coming into another. Not much noise between the turns.

Has your approach to building boards for these kinds of average everyday waves changed over the years? I feel like John’s surfing has evolved over time, as have his boards.

Totally. The thing with my business is that it’s international. We make boards in every part of the world. Especially early in my shaping career, I traveled all the time to go shape. I need to make money, basically. I’d to Japan or Portugal, places that had different surf from the North Shore. I’ve always been really aware of trying to focus on the low end of surfing. Almost every board works well in good waves. Some are better than others, obviously. I’ve always tried to do my best to build boards that work well in shitty waves.

With John, he has a hard time being motivated to surf shitty waves. We live here with really good surf and he travels to good waves. Even Lowers; it may look pretty but it’s a pretty feeble wave. It has a nice shape but it’s really weak. So people say his weak link is weak waves. But if you look at the history books, he’s won everywhere. He’s won in Brazil, which is a punchier beachbreak.

John likes to keep things simple, he doesn’t want a lot of board choices. We’ve talked about that, even for this event. Like he brought one board that was for the mid-range surf. I was like wow, hope this works out. I remember one year in France he lost to Keanu Asing in clean shoulder high lefts. He rode a board I knew was not it. I wasn’t there, but I was watching the broadcast. I was like, “I made a board that will work in those waves.” And he’s more about, “This is what I’ve been riding, I’m going to stick with this.” I don’t make his decisions for boards when the day comes, I don’t want to mess with his thinking. We do the work ahead of time to make sure he has the right stuff for the conditions, then he makes the decision.

What was it like watching the whole year come down to those two heats?

It was a lot. I don’t like that format, I think it diminishes the whole year of what people do. I think it should be cumulative. You should surf well in all these spots in different types of waves. I think that’s what really marks a champion, someone who has that diversity and ocean knowledge. Putting together a year of results is really difficult. To put together a day of good results is less challenging. And to have it at Lowers, it’s a good wave for a 140-pound kid. That being said, I’ve been to two of the WSL Finals and it’s exciting. Every heat is do or die. You’re either in or out. Look at Italo. That makes it exciting for the people there that day, but I don’t think it’s representative of a world title. It doesn’t make sense to me. As it came out the two people in first won the world title, and amen to that.

There’s a similar thread between you and John and what Caity Simmers and Christ Borst just did. A high-level surfer and a local shaper taking the world by storm.

It was funny, I had never met Chris before. During the event, we had an area with Nathan and John’s crew in the athletes. And there was a guy sitting in front of us who kept coming and going. We wanted his spot (laughs). Finally, I realized it was Chris Borst, the guy is so underground! I introduced myself and it ended up being sick. He was there the whole day and he was so stoked. It was insane to watch him watch Caity win the whole thing. I got him a beer after and said, “Welcome to the club!”

John never won the title when he was that young, but to have someone you work with so much and have them stick with you, it’s the same kind of energy John had me when he was young. So it was fun to meet Chris and see that happen for him.

What’s next for you as the CT is over?

Going back to work. North Shore has some waves, I’ll go shape some surfboards and make some stuff with John. It’s been a slow summer here, everyone has been gone. Nathan and Ivan and Koa Rothman have been a ton, so they’ll probably need a bunch of boards.