John John Florence Bails on 2026 Tour and Unleashes ‘Vela’ Sailing Saga (Video)

In a recent poll, conducted right here on SURFER, 94 percent of voters believed that John John Florence would be a world title threat on the 2026 Championship Tour.

Then, the rug was pulled out. The three-time world champion changed his mind, withdrew from for the tour, and instead, decided to continue his globe-trotting sailing adventure around the world with his young family including wife Lauryn and son Darwin.

Sounds pretty good, no? But for surf fans, there will be a massive, JJF-sized hole on the WSL’s elite 2026 circuit. Not good, from a viewing perspective. Fear not, however, as the top ramen-haired surfer is dropping a new video series about his adventures.

“He always says that we’ll have plenty of years to hang at home,” Lauryn Florence says in the cinematic trailer for the series above. “So, why not try and explore as much as we can now?”

The trailer features impossibly blue South Pacific waters, tiny green islands, marine wildlife, the catamaran boat battling storms, puke, native surfers in farfetched lands, and rarely seen (or surfed) waves that the Florence family discovers on their journey.

In other words, it’s a behind-the-scenes look into one of the more reclusive surf stars of today. That’s a rare thing for Florence, who prefers go incognito, when compared to his contemporaries, who put everything online – the Italo Ferreiras, Gabriel Medinas, etc.

“For me, this adventure isn’t a break from surfing,” Florence says in the trailer. “It’s a modern version of what surfing used to be.”

Stay tuned for the new series, dubbed “Vela,” dropping on JJF’s YouTube channel this Wednesday.